ALMATY, Kazakhstan – Twelve security officers have been killed and 353 wounded in ongoing unrest in Kazakhstan after protests spread across the nation of 19 million this week in outrage over a New Year increase in prices for liquid petroleum gas (LPG), which is widely used to fuel cars in the west of the country, media reports said.

Kazakhstan’s Khabar 24 news channel reported the toll on Thursday, saying that the body of one of the dead security officers was found with its head cut off, Russian news agencies Interfax and RIA Novosti reported.

Earlier, a Moscow-led military alliance dispatched troops to help quell mounting disorder. Under increasing pressure, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appealed overnight to the Russia-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), which includes five other ex-Soviet states, to combat what he called “terrorist groups” that had “received extensive training abroad”.

Within hours the alliance said the first troops had been sent, including Russian paratroopers and military units from the other CSTO members. In the worst reported violence so far, police said dozens of people were killed in battles with security forces at government buildings in the country’s largest city Almaty.

“Peacekeeping forces… were sent to the Republic of Kazakhstan for a limited time to stabilise and normalise the situation,” the CSTO said in a statement, without specifying the number of troops involved. The CSTO’s current chairman, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, earlier announced the alliance would agree to the request, saying Kazakhstan was facing “outside interference”.

“Last night, extremist forces tried to assault administrative buildings, the Almaty city police department, as well as local police commissariats. Dozens of assailants were eliminated,” police spokesman Saltanat Azirbek was quoted as saying by the Interfax-Kazakhstan, TASS and Ria Novosti news agencies.

Tokayev said in a televised address early Thursday that “terrorists” were seizing buildings, infrastructure and small arms, and battling security forces.

Videos on social media on Thursday showed pillaged shops and burned buildings in Almaty, automatic gunfire in the streets and residents screaming in fear.

Officials said more than 1,000 people had been wounded so far in the unrest, with nearly 400 hospitalised and 62 in intensive care.

Protests spread across the nation of 19 million this week in outrage over a New Year increase in prices for liquid petroleum gas (LPG), which is widely used to fuel cars in the west of the country.

Protesters were reported to have stormed several government buildings on Wednesday, including the Almaty mayor’s office and the presidential residence.

The full picture of the chaos was unclear, with widespread disruptions to communications.

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