Kazakh Rescuers Save Over 80 Tajik Passengers in Deep Freeze

Emergency responders in Kazakhstan’s northern city of Kokshetau have carried out a timely rescue, evacuating 81 citizens of Tajikistan after their international bus was stranded amid life-threatening sub-zero temperatures.

According to the Akmola Regional Emergency Department, the bus was forced to stop as extreme cold made driving conditions dangerously unsafe, The Caspian Post reports via Kazakh media.

Among the passengers were 17 children. “All 81 people on board were foreign nationals - citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan,” said Yersain Koishibayev, an official spokesperson for the department.

Rescue teams, working together with police officers, safely evacuated the passengers and transported them to an adaptation center and a local hotel, where they received all necessary assistance. The evacuees later expressed gratitude to the emergency services for their swift and professional response.

Kazakhstan’s emergency workers are frequently praised for such operations. Last year, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted that employees of the Emergency Situations Ministry had saved around 225,000 lives over the past five years.