Kazakhstan police station attack: Suspected Islamist militants kill five in Almaty

The president of Kazakhstan described the attack as an act of terror

Kazakh policemen escort a detained suspect in armed attack of police station in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 18 July, 2016 (EPA)

Suspected Islamist militants have killed four police officers and a civilian in an attack on a police station in Kazakhstan's largest city.

The attackers targeted a district police station and an office of the KNB state security service. Another shootout occurred on a busy central street where police wounded and detained one of the attackers.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev called the attacks a terrorist act and ordered tighter security in public areas.

The attack began when one gunman shot at a duty officer and took his machine gun, Kazakh police said.

One of the gunmen shot and killed a local resident and then hijacked his car as he fled from the police station.

The Interfax news agency, quoting a police source, said "a religious radical and probably a follower of non-traditional Islam", was on the rampage.​

The man then fled in the car, shooting at a traffic police crew and injuring two before he was detained a mile away.

Police identified him as a 27-year-old former convict who was wanted for the murder of a woman last weekend.

A second person suspected of being linked to the deadly shooting has been detained by police, the Interior Ministry said. It said in a statement that the detained person "had been beside the criminal" who tried to get into the district police station.

The ministry statement put the total death toll at four, including three policemen. However, a source at Almaty's emergency aid hospital told Reuters it had taken in six dead, including four policemen, one civilian and one suspected attacker.

There were also eight wounded at the hospital, the source said.

The attack comes a month after 20 people were killed in the Kazakh city of Aktobe when groups of gunmen attacked a military base and a gun shop. Authorities in this Central Asian nation then described the violence as a terrorist attack and blamed it on radical Islamists.

Energy-rich Kazakhstan, arguably one of the most prosperous former Soviet republics, is a predominantly Muslim but largely secular nation.

Additional reporting by agencies