Eight people were killed, dozens hurt and property burned during clashes in southern Kazakhstan, prompting concern Saturday from authorities who portray the country as a beacon of stability. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev held an emergency government session Saturday to tackle Friday's violence in an ethnically-mixed pocket of the Jambyl region, near the border with Kyrgyzstan.

A commission of enquiry was also set up.

"Eight died, more than 40 were injured" in the clashes, Interior Minister Yerlan Turgumbayev said in the capital Nur-Sultan. An AFP journalist who visited Masanchi - one of the villages where clashes took place - said few people were out walking on streets lined by smouldering houses as fire crews put out the remaining fires.