Kazakhstan’s president has accepted the government’s resignation after violent protests took place in the country over fuel prices.
Police used tear gas and stun grenades to drive hundreds of protesters out of the main square in Almaty, the former Soviet republic’s biggest city.
Clashes went on for hours in nearby areas and a state of emergency was declared – including a curfew, restrictions on movement, and a ban on mass gatherings.
A price cap on fuel, controversially removed on New Year’s Day, will now be restored.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the government’s resignation on Wednesday, his office said, and appointed Alikhan Smailov – previously first deputy PM – as acting prime minister.
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Tokayev has the regulation of fuel prices and other “socially important” goods and told a government meeting the situation was improving in Almaty and the oil-producing Mangistau province.
He also ordered the government to develop a personal bankruptcy law and consider freezing utilities’ prices and subsidising rent payments for poor families.
After the price cap was first lifted, the price of liquified petroleum gas (LPG), which many people use to power their cars in Kazakhstan, doubled.
The government justified the change by saying the set price of 50 tenge a litre (10p) was unsustainable.
But protests erupted in several places and loud explosions could be heard in Almaty.
Tokayev declared a two-week state of emergency in Almaty and in the western Mangistau province, his office said.
“Calls to attack government and military offices are absolutely illegal,” he said in a video address a few hours earlier.
“The government will not fall, but we want mutual trust and dialogue rather than conflict.”
After the spike in prices, rallies attracting thousands of people erupted on Sunday in the town of Zhanaozen, an oil hub where there were deadly clashes between protesters and police a decade ago.
There were also demonstrations in Mangistau province and in western Kazakhstan.
The protests shook the country’s image as a politically stable and tightly controlled nation – an image it has used to attract hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign investment in its oil and metals industries.
Public protests are illegal in Kazakhstan unless organisers file notice in advance.