Eighteen security officers have been murdered and over 700 have been injured in Kazakhstan’s ongoing turmoil.
According to Russian news agencies Interfax and RIA Novosti, Kazakhstan’s Khabar 24 news station reported the death toll as of midday, claiming that the body of one of the slain security officials was discovered with its head chopped off.
As Moscow-led soldiers deployed to assist in suppressing major unrest that left dozens dead and hundreds jailed, bursts of gunfire resonated through the streets of Kazakhstan’s main city on Thursday.
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A day after demonstrators stormed multiple government buildings, fighting appeared to be continuing, with an AFP correspondent hearing regular bursts of gunfire from the direction of a central square.
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The streets of Almaty were littered with burned-out automobiles, numerous government buildings were in ruins, and bullet shells littered the grounds of the presidential palace, which had been assaulted and ransacked by demonstrators on Wednesday.
(With inputs from agencies)
