Kyrgyzstan's new leaders tightened their grip on power yesterday, naming an interim head of state and calling a fresh election, as the nation's ousted ruler denounced what he called a coup d'etat and vowed to return. In Bishkek, gunshots were heard in several areas as security forces fired into the air to deter looters. Broken glass and naked mannequins ripped from shop windows littered the streets after the revolution degenerated into a night of looting and vandalism. As Parliament named Kurmanbek Bakiyev, one of the leaders of the fractious opposition, to head the new regime, deposed president Askar Akayev insisted he had not resigned. "The rumors about my resignation are not true," he said in an e-mail message to a Kyrgyz news agency, his first public comments since Thursday's protests swept aside his regime in what he called "an unconstitutional coup d'etat." Akayev confirmed he had left the country but insisted it was only temporary "in order to avoid bloody excesses" and that he would return. "The attempt to rid me of presidential powers via an unconstitutional route is a crime against the state," he added. "My current stay outside the country is temporary." It was unclear where Akayev was speaking from. Unconfirmed reports say he fled to neighboring Kazakhstan after protesters seized the seat of government and presidency in the capital Bishkek.