Five people, including an apparent suicide bomber, were killed on Saturday in a combined shooting and bomb attack in the southern Kazakh city of Taraz, the Interfax news agency reported.
An unknown individual attacked a weapons shop, stealing two Saiga rifles and killing a security guard, the interior ministry said in a statement quoted by the agency.
He then escaped in a vehicle, shooting dead two police officers on his way. When finally apprehended, the gunman detonated his charge, killing himself and a traffic policeman.
“After being arrested, the wounded criminal blew himself up and as a result a member of the traffic police was killed,” the interior ministry said. Kazakhstan, which this month passed a new law tightening control over religious organisations, has seen an unprecedented spate of small-scale attacks over the last year blamed on Islamist extremists.