Kazakhstan sees 'nation-scale internet blackout' amid protests

Kazakhstan was seeing a "nation-scale internet blackout" likely in response to unprecedented unrest in the Central Asian nation, a web monitoring group said.

"Kazakhstan is now in the midst of a nation-scale internet blackout after a day of mobile internet disruptions and partial restrictions," the NetBlocks monitor tweeted.

"The incident is likely to severely limit coverage of escalating anti-government protests."

Correspondents in Kazakhstan had earlier said that internet connection was intermittent, and that messenger apps Telegram, Signal and WhatsApp were all unavailable.

The correspondents were unreachable on their mobile phones on Wednesday evening.

Protests triggered by a New Year energy price increase have swept across the ex-Soviet country, in a rare challenge to the authoritarian government.

Kazakhstan's leadership tolerates little real opposition and has been accused of silencing independent voices and media.

Earlier Wednesday, protesters stormed the mayor's office in the country's largest city Almaty and appeared to have seized control of the building.

Bursts of gunfire echoed through the streets of Kazakhstan's largest city on Thursday as Moscow-led troops arrived to help quell mass unrest that left dozens dead and hundreds detained.

Fighting appeared to be continuing a day after protesters stormed several government buildings, with an correspondent hearing regular eruptions of gunfire from the direction of a central square.

Burnt-out vehicles littered Almaty's streets, several government buildings were in ruins and bullet casings were strewn over the territory of the presidential residence, which was stormed and looted by protesters on Wednesday.