Dozens of protesters and 12 police officers killed in Kazakhstan as Russian troops arrive

The streets of Kazakhstan were quiet on Thursday, after protesters clashed with police the previous night, ITV News Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo reports

Dozens of protesters have been killed in Kazakhstan in attacks on government buildings and at least 12 police officers were killed, including one who was found beheaded, authorities have said.Days of demonstrations sparked by a rise in fuel prices escalated into the most violent street protests the country has seen since gaining independence 30 years ago.

In a bid to calm the unrest, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the president of the Central Asian nation bordering Russia and China, called on the country's allies for help. On Thursday, a Russian-led force arrived and started carrying out their “assigned tasks”.

The advanced unit of paratroopers were part of thousands of what are called peacekeepers deployed by the Moscow-based alliance of six former Soviet countries, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

The operation is the first military action by the CSTO - an indication that Kazakhstan’s neighbours, particularly Russia, are concerned that the unrest could spread.

On Wednesday, demonstrators in Kazakhstan’s largest city stormed the presidential residence and the mayor’s office, setting both on fire, according to news reports.

So far, 2,000 people have been arrested, the Interior Ministry said.

Violence erupted between police and protesters during the unrest in Almaty, with officers deploying water cannons in the freezing weather, firing tear gas and concussion grenades.

There were attempts to storm buildings in the city overnight and "dozens of attackers were liquidated," police spokesperson Saltanat Azirbek told state news channel Khabar-24, using a term common to describe the killing of people thought to be extremists by law enforcement.

Amid the unrest, Kazakhstan's government agreed to restore vehicle fuel price caps for six months, with petrol and diesel prices being capped for the same amount of time.

This was seen as an attempt to address the economic issues that led to the protests, although it was unclear what, if any, effect the moves would have.

On Thursday, media reported that the city commandant’s office as saying that another 353 law enforcement officers were injured, in addition to the 12 killed.

In a move to quell the protests, Mr Tokayev earlier vowed to take harsh measures and declared a two-week state of emergency for the whole country, expanding one that had been announced for both the capital of Nur-Sultan and Almaty that imposed an overnight curfew.

The government resigned in response to the unrest, but Mr Tokayev said the ministers would stay in their roles until a new Cabinet is formed, making it uncertain whether the resignations will have significant impact.

According to the global watchdog organisation Netblocks, the country was experiencing an internet blackout as Kazakh news sites became inaccessible on Wednesday.

Severe interruptions to internet service have made it difficult - sometimes impossible - for news of what was happening inside Kazakhstan to get out.

In other apparent attempts to seal the country off, the airports in Almaty and one other city have also been shut.

Why is there unrest in Kazakhstan?

The protests began on Sunday in Zhanaozen, a city in the west where government resentment was strong in the wake of a 2011 strike by oil workers in which police fatally shot at least 15 people.

They spread across the country in the following days over discontent around the near-doubling of prices for a type of liquefied petroleum gas that is widely used as vehicle fuel, but their size reflects wider discontent in the country that has been under the rule of the same party since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Mr Tokayev claimed the unrest was led by “terrorist bands” that had received help from unspecified other countries.

Kazakhstan, the ninth-largest country in the world, borders Russia to the north and China to the east and has extensive oil reserves that make it strategically and economically important.

Despite those reserves and mineral wealth, discontent over poor living conditions is strong in some parts of the country. Many Kazakhs are also against the dominance of the ruling party, which holds more than 80% of the seats in parliament.

The protests appear to have no identifiable leader or demands. Many of the demonstrators shouted “old man go,” an apparent reference to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s first president who continues to wield enormous influence after his 2019 resignation.

In an earlier televised statement, President Tokayev promised to make political reforms and announced that he was assuming the leadership of the national security council. The latter is potentially significant because the council had been headed by Nazarbayev.