ALMATY, January 5. /TASS/. The Kazakh president’s residence and the mayor’s office in Almaty where protests continue are engulfed by fire. Despite a state of emergency declared in the city last night, a large number of protesters are staying there, a TASS correspondent reports from the scene.

A fire is raging in the president’s residence while the building of the mayor’s office is ablaze from the first to the last floor. Clashes with police are being observed in the area of the mayor’s office. The law-enforcement agencies are using stun grenades. Loud gunfire is also heard at the president’s residence.

On January 2, crowds took to the streets in the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the Mangistau region in the country’s southwest, protesting against fuel price hikes. Two days later, riots erupted in Almaty (the country’s southeast) where police used stun grenades to disperse crowds and also in other cities, in particular, in Atyrau and Aktobe (the west), Uralsk (the northwest), Taraz, Shymkent and Kyzylorda (the south), Karaganda (the northeast) and even in Nur-Sultan.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has declared a state of emergency in the Mangistau and Almaty regions and also in Almaty and Nur-Sultan for two weeks. On January 5, the head of the Kazakh state dismissed the government. Its members continue discharging their duties until a new Cabinet is approved.