About 8,000 detained in Kazakhstan during riots

The number of people detained in Kazakhstan as a result of the riots has increased to almost 8,000, Report informs referring to the Kazakh Interior.

“Throughout the country, 7,939 persons were detained,” the ministry said in a statement released on January 10.

In particular, according to the ministry, law enforcement agencies, together with servicemen of the National Guard and special forces in Almaty, detained 207 people in two markets.

“Five stolen cars, goods and material values, two units of smoothbore and four cold weapons were seized,” the report says.

The situation in Kazakhstan escalated on January 2, when rallies began in Zhanaozen (a city in the Mangystau Province, in the west of the country) against a sharp increase in prices for liquefied gas.