Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Ten people were killed during a mass riot in the oil town of Zhanaozen in western Kazakhstan where London-listed KazMunaiGas Exploration Production’s largest producing deposit is located.

A group of armed “hooligans” attacked civilians and police and burned down city hall, hotels and an administrative building belonging to state-controlled KazMunaiGas EP’s Uzenmunaigas unit, Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General Farhat Daulbayev said today in an e-mailed statement.

KazMunaiGas EP said production wasn’t harmed and its employees didn’t take part in the riots, according to a separates statement from the oil producer. Security at the facilities has been heightened, it said.

--Editor: Torrey Clark

To contact the reporter on this story: Nariman Gizitdinov in Almaty at ngizitdinov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net