ASTANA, July 20. /TASS/. The police of Almaty have completed the search and investigative actions in the city center, the city’s interior department reported on Wednesday. "The operational search activities have been completed. Police were checking certain criminal information, which has not been confirmed", the department said.
Previously, the city interior department reported that investigation and search activities were underway in the city center in the area of Gogol, Zenkova, Makatayeva Abdullinykh streets and asked people to stay calm and comply with the demands of law enforcement officers. Tenants of high-rise apartment buildings were evacuated, vehicle traffic was blocked.
On Monday, five people died and another nine were wounded in an armed attack at the Almaty Interior Ministry and National Security Committee departments, Kalmukhanbet Kasymov, Kazakhstan’s minister of internal affairs, told journalists. "Three policemen, one border guard and one civilian died. A border guard put up resistance; disobeyed the assailants and was wounded," Kasymov, who arrived in Almaty on order from Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said.
The red terror alert was declared in the city, security forces conducted an operation to arrest the persons involved in the crime. The attacker was a 27-year-old man twice convicted for robbery with violence and illegal acquisition and possession of firearms. He was born in the Kyzylorda region. According to the interior minister, nine people, including six policemen and the assailant himself, are in hospital. Police were questioning the attacker right in a hospital ward.
All the facilities in Almaty where a terrorist attack occurred on Monday are operating normally, spokesperson for the Almaty Department of Internal Affairs Saltanat Azimbek told TASS on Tuesday. "The situation in the city is stable, there is no threat to the citizens’ lives. The situation is fully controlled by the law enforcement agencies. All facilities are operating normally," she said. According to Azimbek, law enforcement officers who on Monday were put on a beefed-up security regime, now "are on duty as usual."
The attack on the Almaty district interior department and the National Security Committee department took place on Monday morning. Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev classified the incident as a terror attack.
Currently, civil funeral rites are held in city for the victims of the terrorist attack.