MOSCOW, January 7. /TASS/. The terror alert level has been raised to Blue (Guarded) in Kazakhstan’s city of Baikonur from January 7 to 19 amid the mass unrest in the country, the city’s administration said on its website on Friday.

"Head of the Baikonur city administration Konstantin Busygin declared a blue (guarded) level of terrorism threat in the city of Baikonur from 12:00 on January 7, 2022 to 00:00 on January 19, 2022," it said.

The city’s administration has called on the local residents not to yield to panic and rumors. The situation in the city is stable and under control, with all vital facilities operating routinely, it said.

Earlier, the city’s administration imposed a number of restrictive measures for a period until January 19. Thus, checkpoints will be closed from 23:00 to 06:00 local time, with people being banned from moving around the city. Trade and public catering outlets will be open till 22:00.

Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2 to grow into mass riots with attacks on government buildings in many cities several days later. Thousands have been injured and fatalities have also been reported. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked help from the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, a post-Soviet security bloc. CSTO peacekeepers have already been deployed to Kazakhstan. According to the Kazakh authorities, law and order had been restored in all of the country’s regions by the morning on January 7. However, the situation in Almaty is still very tense.