Flights to Kazakhstan are being canceled after Almaty International Airport, the country’s busiest, was reportedly seized by protesters on Wednesday, amid mass unrest triggered by a hike in the price of liquefied gas.
While no visual evidence was immediately available from the airport due to a mass internet blackout said to be happening in Kazakhstan, locally-sourced Telegram news channel Orda cited the airport’s press service as confirming they were no longer in control of the location.
It claimed the media team had confirmed the seizure of the building by some “45 invaders,” but that there were no passengers in the terminal at the time.
Earlier, there had been reports that the Kazakh Army was protecting the airport’s perimeter, and footage of an purported military cordon has been shared online. However, Orda sources reported that the military has since left the scene, and that the airport’s employees had evacuated all remaining passengers. Staff are also said to have been evacuated to safety.