One person was killed and 11 others were wounded when Kazakh police opened fire at hooligans who set on fire a train in a village in the country's southwest, the local Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on Sunday.
A group of people blocked the rail road in Shetpe on Saturday afternoon, calling for support for participants in Friday riots in the nearby town of Zhanaozen, the statement said.
A train carrying more than 300 passengers was blocked at the station, the statement said.
“At about 8 pm local time, police officers took measures to clear the rail road and prevent criminal actions,” the statement reads.
However, “some 50 hooligans showed active resistance to the police, set the locomotive of a freight train on fire and began throwing bottles with Molotov cocktails at train cars.”
The hooligans then reportedly moved to the town center, where they set on fire a Christmas tree and smashed shop and car windows with stones.
“Taking into consideration that the hooligans’ actions posed a real threat to the lives and health of peaceful citizens and police officers, police was forced to open fire,” the prosecutors said in the statement.
Twelve people who were wounded were taken to hospital, where one of them died, the statement said.
A state of emergency has been declared in the region following Friday clashes between striking oil workers and police in the oil town of Zhanaozen, which left 11 people dead and more than 70 injured.
The clashes, the worst violence in the former Soviet state in years, erupted as Kazakhstan marked Independence Day. Eyewitnesses claim police fired on unarmed protesters, a charge denied by the authorities.
The U.S.-based campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the violence and called on the police to refrain from using excessive force.
