Refugees, surrendering Congolese soldiers and stranded truckers thronged the Rwandan border on Tuesday, hoping to reach safety after rebels captured the nearby Congolese city of Goma and spurred them to flee.

A conflict that has raged for decades reached a flashpoint this week when rebels backed by Rwanda marched on a key Congolese city in a bid to occupy territory and exploit minerals.

Congolese security forces on Tuesday tried to slow the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who say they have captured Goma after entering eastern Congo's largest city, as U.N. officials reported violence,

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Anti-Rwandan protests broke out in Kinshasa Tuesday morning, as rebels battled Congolese forces in the key eastern city of Goma. Rwanda has accepted over 1,200 refugees fleeing the fighting, according to a government official on the border.

Rwandan diplomats say their army is not deployed in the DRC, but if it was it would be to protect the Congolese Tutsi community and their own borders against the rebel Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda. The FDLR includes combatants who participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Residents of Goma reported gunfire and shelling after rebels overran Congolese troops. U.N. officials estimated that more than one million displaced people were now inside the city.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - After three years on the run from the Rwandan-backed M23 insurgency in eastern Congo, on Sunday, with the rebels fighting their way into Goma's city outskirts, Colleta Nzambonimpa found herself in church with nowhere left to turn.

The militia seized the pivotal city of Goma, threatening a new humanitarian crisis in a region that has suffered decades of fighting.

In the capital, Kinshasa, protesters complaining of a lack of international action attacked foreign embassies, including those of the U.S., France and Rwanda.

Desperation, looting and bodies in the streets are being reported in Goma, after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels claimed to have captured the Congolese city. It's the latest move after years of fighting in the country's mineral-rich east.