Five dead after shooting with police in Kazakhstan's Almaty

Two police officers and three other people were killed Monday in a shootout triggered by a dispute over property in Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty, police said.

A police statement carried by Russian news agencies said that a man served an eviction notice "showed aggression and opened fire" on court bailiffs, police officers and emergency ministry officials before being detained and disarmed.

The shooter killed two policemen, a court bailiff and two civilians, including the "new owner" of the property, according to Rustam Abrakhmanov, Almaty's deputy chief of police, who briefed journalists near the sealed-off crime scene.

The man fired at his victims with a hunting rifle, said Abdrakhmanov, adding that women and children had been in the property at the time.

The incident comes as problems with mortgage repayments in the Central Asian country have seen debtors mobilize in recent years, as collapses in the oil price pummel local purchasing power.

The incident took place around 5:00 pm local time (1100 GMT) in the Akbulak district of Almaty, Kazakhstan's economic capital in the south of the country.

Police did not give the name of the shooter, saying only that he was born in 1967.