Almaty, January 6. / TASS /. The military completely cleared the Republic Square in Almaty on Thursday, TASS correspondent reports from the scene, many of the instigators of the riots fled shortly after the first shots.

Eyewitnesses report injured and killed, but there is no official confirmation of the information about the dead. A large number of military personnel and equipment remain on the square.

According to Khabar-24 TV channel, the city administration and the residence of the head of state have also been cleared.

On January 2, crowds took to the streets in the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the Mangystau Region, in southwestern Kazakhstan, protesting against high fuel prices. Two days later, the protests engulfed Almaty, in the country’s southeast, where the police used flashbangs to disperse the crowd, as well as other cities, including Atyrau, Aktobe (in the west), Uralsk (in the northwest), Taraz, Shymkent, Kyzylorda (in the south), Karaganda (in the northeast) and even Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan. The president imposed a two-week state of emergency in the Mangystau Region and in the Almaty Region, as well as the republic’s largest city of Almaty and the capital Nur-Sultan. On January 5, the head of the state also accepted the government’s resignation. Its members will continue to perform their tasks until a new cabinet is formed.