Prosecutor General's Office: 225 people died as a result of riots in Kazakhstan
Photo: Pavel Mikheyev / Reuters
Over 4.5 thousand people were injured during the riots in Kazakhstan, another 225 participants were killed. Serik Shalabaev, head of the Criminal Prosecution Service of the General Prosecutor's Office of Kazakhstan, announced the number of victims at a briefing on Saturday, RIA Novosti reports.
“225 dead were delivered to the morgues. Among them are 19 police officers and military personnel,” he specified.
Asel Artakshinova, director of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Health, added that out of the total number of deaths, 175 people died in medical institutions.
Protests in Kazakhstan began on January 2 over a sharp increase in gas prices for cars. By January 5, rallies in Kazakhstan turned into riots. In Almaty, shops, banks were looted, the airport building, police stations, government agencies and infrastructure facilities were seized. The army was sent to suppress the protests. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked the CSTO to send troops to protect the country from armed gangs.
The withdrawal of the CSTO forces from the republic began on the morning of Thursday, January 13. On Saturday, January 15, two Il-76 planes with Russian peacekeepers arrived from Kazakhstan in the Moscow region.
