Myanmar military coup: Nine dead in police firing to counter protests

At least 30 people have been killed since the coup on February 1, triggering nationwide protests.

Credit: Reuters

New Delhi: Myanmar security forces shot and killed nine people during protests against the military coup on Wednesday, witnesses and media reported, a day after a regional diplomatic push to end the month-long crisis made little headway.

Two people were killed during clashes at a protest in the country's second-biggest city Mandalay, a witness and media reports said, and one person was killed when police opened fire in the main city of Yangon, a witness there said.

The Monywa Gazette reported five people were killed in that central town in police firing. One person was shot and killed in the central town of Myingyan, said student activist Moe Myint Hein, 25.

"They opened fire on us with live bullets. One was killed, he's young, a teenage boy, shot in the head," Moe Myint Hein, who was wounded in the leg, told Reuters by telephone.

A spokesman for the ruling military council did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.

The violence came a day after foreign ministers from Southeast Asian neighbours urged restraint but failed to unite behind a call for the military to release ousted government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and restore democracy.

At least 30 people have been killed since the coup on February 1, which ended Myanmar's tentative steps towards democratic rule, triggering nationwide protests and international dismay.

The security forces also detained about 300 protesters as they broke up protests in Yangon, the Myanmar Now news agency reported. One activist said several protest leaders were among those taken away