After serious unrest, the situation in Central Asian Kazakhstan remained unclear over the weekend.

Nationwide, more than 4,400 people have now been arrested, the state television reported on Saturday, citing the Interior Ministry of the authoritarian-led former Soviet republic.

There was initially no new official information on the fatalities one day after President Kassym-Shomart Tokayev issued an order to shoot.

The authorities had previously spoken of more than 40 people killed - including security forces.

Tokayev ordered the police and army on Friday to shoot "without warning" at demonstrators whom he described as "terrorists" and "bandits".

It was feared that there could be many civilian deaths - especially in Almaty, a city of over a million people in southeastern Kazakhstan, which was badly shaken by the riots.

Because the authorities have switched off the Internet in Almaty and the cell phone connection keeps breaking down, it was still hardly possible to get secure information from there.

Photos show armed security forces leading protesters away.

Gunshot noises can be heard on videos on social networks allegedly from Almaty.

The so-called anti-terrorist operation continues, reported the state broadcaster Khabar 24.

According to statements by Kazakhstan's child rights officer Arushan Sain, an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed while walking with his parents in Almaty. It was not clear who should have shot.

Kazakhstan, which borders Russia and China, has been experiencing the worst riots in years for days. In many places, displeasure at the rise in fuel prices at petrol stations turned into peaceful, but sometimes also violent, protests against the government. Tokayev declared a state of emergency and asked a Russian-led military alliance for help.

Tokayev ordered a nationwide mourning ceremony on Monday to commemorate the victims. At the same time, he continued to rebuild the government. According to state media, he dismissed the deputy secretary of the influential Security Council, Asamat Abdymomunov, who had been appointed by his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev a few years ago. Tokayev had previously withdrawn Nazarbayev himself from the chairmanship of the body - and took it over himself.

The 81-year-old Nazarbayev - Tokayev's political foster father - was still considered the most powerful man in Kazakhstan after his resignation in 2019.

Some experts argue that Tokayev is using the current crisis to gain more leverage.

The president has already dismissed the entire government and replaced the management of the secret service with his own confidants.

Former intelligence chief Karim Massimow was arrested for high treason.

The suppression of the unrest is increasingly taking the form of a "rigorous liberation of the incumbent president from the tutelage of his predecessor," wrote the expert at the Moscow Carnegie Center, Alexander Baunov.

Putin is on the phone with Tokayev

In view of the crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin also had a long phone call with Tokayev on Saturday, according to the Kremlin.

Putin supports Tokayev's proposal to hold a video summit with the heads of state and government of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the coming days, a Kremlin statement said.

Tokayev had asked the military alliance, which also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, for help.

A total of around 2500 foreign soldiers were to be sent to the Central Asian ex-Soviet republic.