16 wounded, 165 arrested in mass disorders in Almaty
Mass disorders that happened yesterday left 16 people severely injured, the mall rampaged, nearby cars overturned and a lot of people scared.
Late on August 31 around 2000 people gathered near Prime Plaza mall in Almaty for a concert of a famous Kazakh pop singer Kairat Nurtas. The concert did not start on time and then the singer left the stage without even finishing the first song. The disappointed crowd started breaking through the fencing then raged at the parking lot and the ground floor of the mall shattering windows and crashing the equipment. The damage to the concert equipment alone is estimated at more than 150 thousand dollars.
The mob was using stones and glass bottles against each other, against the police and against whereever they were crushing. The police arrived shortly after the disorders started to disperse the crowd. 165 people were arrested, more of them were released after some questioning.
