Streets of Kazakhstan's cities strewn with burnt cars and damage in aftermath of protests

Burnt cars and damaged public buildings could be seen across the streets of Kazakhstan's cities Friday, in the aftermath of brutally crushed protests.

Security forces appeared to have reclaimed the streets of Kazakhstan's main city on Friday, a day after Russian paratroopers arrived to help quash an uprising in which dozens of people have been killed and public buildings torched.

Police patrolled the debris-strewn streets of Almaty after the worst violence that oil-rich Kazakhstan, long viewed as a bastion of stability in volatile Central Asia, has experienced in three decades of independence.

Dozens have died and public buildings across Kazakhstan have been ransacked.

The uprising has prompted a military intervention by Moscow at a time of high tension in East-West relations as Russia and the United States gear up for talks next week on the Ukraine crisis.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev blamed foreign-trained terrorists for the unrest, without providing evidence.