NUR-SULTAN, January 7. /TASS/. More than 70 militants that attacked administrative buildings and more than 30 looters have been detained in Almaty, Khabar-24 television channel reported on Friday, citing city police.
"More than 70 militants that attacked administrative buildings and more than 30 looters have been detained in Almaty," a presenter said. "That’s the information that we have from the Almaty police department."
According to the country’s Interior Ministry, all local administration buildings have been cleared of rioters and provided with reinforced security.
Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, later growing into mass riots and attacks on government offices. Thousands of casualties have been reported, including fatalities. The Kazakh president asked the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance of former Soviet republics, for help. First peacekeeping units have already started fulfilling their tasks in Kazakhstan. The government said order has generally been restored in all of the country’s regions by the morning of January 7, while the situation is the most difficult in Almaty.