In Atyrau, passersby tried to prevent a police officer from taking a 19-year-old to the station, mistaking the situation for a possible kidnapping. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Videos taken by eyewitnesses leaked onto social media. The footage shows an unknown man in a dark T-shirt forcefully pushing a young man into a black car.
According to the Telegram channel HALYQSTAN, the incident occurred on Saturday evening on the central square of the city. According to eyewitnesses, the young man shouted "help" and resisted.
The police department of Atyrau region gave their version of what happened: the "kidnapper" is actually a police officer, and the 19-year-old citizen is suspected of involvement in a theft.
"Previously, the suspect had already been brought to responsibility for committing offenses. In addition, it was established that he lived in Atyrau without registration at his place of residence. During his delivery, some citizens did not comply with the lawful demands of police officers and obstructed them in performing their official duties," the department reported.
The department also stated that they did not see any violations by police officers in the video recording. However, they promised to assess the actions of each participant after an investigation.
The police urged residents not to jump to conclusions and not to spread unverified information, and on the department's social media they published a fragment of a video showing an unknown young man, similar in build to the detained person, stealing a bicycle parked near an entrance.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote about how in the Turkestan region police prevented an attempted bride kidnapping.