[An Nahar] Investigators in Kazakhstan were on Monday probing how a glitzy concert at an upscale shopping center by a wildly popular heartthrob Kazakh singer led to riots that left dozens wounded.More than 160 people were arrested after the unrest, which broke out late on Saturday night at the concert by pop singer Kairat Nurtas at the Prime Plaza shopping center in the country's largest city Almaty, the local city hall said in a statement.
Investigators said they had launched criminal probes into possible hooliganism and also neglect of duties by the organizers of the event.
Local media reports said that the disorder broke out when Nurtas, 24, ended his concert prematurely after fans broke through a police cordon to get closer to him on the stage. They then jumped onto the stage and started throwing stones and bottles in apparent frustration, the reports said.
The boyish singer has a particularly avid female following.
Some 90 people were injured in the scuffles that followed the concert and nine of them were hospitalized, a spokesperson for the regional health authority told Agence France Presse.
The shopping center had organised the appearance of Nurtas, who has a huge following in Kazakhstan for his sentimental love ballads, to mark the end of a long-running karaoke competition. They blamed the disturbances on the singer himself, accusing him of letting down his fans by only singing one song.
"He took the decision to leave the stage after clearly getting scared of his own fans. This aroused dissatisfaction among the audience and led to the mass riots," the Prime Plaza statement said.