At least 225 killed in recent Kazakhstan riots: Official

 At least 225 people were killed in unrest in Kazakhstan following protests triggered by fuel price increase, the prosecutor general’s office said on Saturday.

Their bodies were shifted to morgues throughout the country, Russia's TASS news agency quoted Serik Shalabayev, the head of criminal prosecution at the prosecutor's office, as saying.

He told a briefing that at least 4,353 people were also injured, "including 3,393 members of law enforcement agencies."

Of the victims, 175 succumbed to their wounds in hospitals, according to the Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev lifted a state of emergency in Akmola and Kostanay, bringing the number of regions returning to normalcy to 10.

The decision came as the withdrawal of peacekeepers from the Collective Security Treaty Organization, continues.

On Jan. 2, protests broke out in Kazakhstan over an increase in liquefied petroleum gas prices in the city of Zhanaozen in Mangystau region, which later turned into clashes with police, with the most violent developments taking place in Kazakhstan's former capital and largest city Almaty.

Tokayev turned to the Russia-led military bloc for help, and peacekeepers from Russia, Belarus, Armenia, and Tajikistan soon arrived in the country and backed the Kazakh law enforcement in restoring order.