Situation still evolving with Almaty shooter(s)

    Police sources say the terror alert level has been raised to 'Red'
    Shooting was heard this morning near a police station in Almaty, witnesses told Reuters.
    “We saw a man with a rifle, he passed by,” a shop worker told Reuters by phone. The shooting was heard in the city center, according to the witnesses.
    Witnesses say an unknown gunman is running around with a machine gun and has shot at least two people.
    Ambulances have rushed to the scene, and emergency services recommend locals avoid going out.
    “You should wait for a couple of hours, there is a special operation going on there,” they said.
    Facebook user Bolat Mukashev posted a photo from the scene, saying that the gunfire broke out between unknown attackers and police, with one person “lying inside a car, all covered in blood, and two others just lying in the street.”
    RIA Novosti said at least one police officer is dead with several more injured in an armed assault by unknown persons in the city center. Ria Novosti was quoting police sources.
    At least 10 shots were fired, local media outlet 365info.kz reported, citing witnesses.
    “At first there were three or four single shots fired, and then there was a round. The unknown attacker ran away with the machine gun, and the policemen ran after him,” employees at nearby offices told Bestnews.kz media outlet.
    Other witnesses reported on social networks that “an unknown person wearing black was shooting with a machine gun at police, trying to stop (their) car, and then ran in the eastern direction.”
    The areas near police headquarters, as well as near the Department of the National Security Committee have been blocked off by police.
    Last month, two gun shops were robbed, a bus was hijacked, and a military base in the western Kazakh city of Aktobe came under attack from local Islamists, who killed seven people, and wounded 37, most of whom were servicemen.
    The Kazakh Interior Ministry said on Monday an anti-terrorist operation had been launched in Almaty after gunmen killed at least two policemen, Reuters reports.