Fifteen people have died in clashes in Kazakhstan's oil-rich Mangistau region, prosecutors said Sunday, in a blow to a nation that prides itself on years of energy-fuelled stability. One person was killed and 11 wounded in fresh violence on Saturday when protesters blocking a passenger train clashed with police in the village of Shetpe, General Prosecutor Nurdaulet Suindikov said in a statement.
Those riots followed violence in the city of Zhanaozen, in the same western region, on Friday when police and laid-off oil workers clashed during the country's independence day celebrations.
Prosecutors said Sunday 14 people died in Zhanaozen, updating the previous death toll of 13. The unprecedented riots forced Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to declare a 20-day state of emergency in Zhanaozen and deal a blow to a government which prides itself on attracting foreign investors.
Earlier this year Kazakhstan government said it hired former British prime minister Tony Blair to help modernise the ex-Soviet state.
Authorities said Sunday they had the situation in both towns under control. On Saturday, a group in Shetpe, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the regional centre Aktau, stopped a train with more than 360 passengers in a show of support for the protesters in Zhanaozen, prosecutors said.
Some 50 people ignored police calls to disperse, set the train on fire and proceeded to vandalise the village. "Police were forced to open fire," killing one person, a prosecutors' statement said.
On Friday, clashes with police broke out in Zhanaozen when people sporting oil workers' uniforms toppled a Christmas tree and sound equipment set up on the city's main square for Independence Day festivities.
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