Kazakh leader rejects talks, tells forces to 'shoot to kill'

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

Kazakhstan's president on Friday rejected calls for talks with protesters after days of unprecedented unrest, vowing to destroy "armed bandits" and authorising his forces to shoot to kill without warning.

In a hardline address to the nation, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also gave "special thanks" to Russian President Vladimir Putin after a Moscow-led military alliance sent troops to Kazakhstan to help quell the violence. 

Security forces had blocked off strategic areas of Almaty -- the country's largest city and epicentre of the recent violence -- and were firing into the air if anyone approached, an AFP correspondent said.

Elsewhere the city was like a ghost town, with banks, supermarkets and restaurants closed. The few small shops still open were fast running out of food.