Police charge forward to disperse protesters in Mandalay, Myanmar
Credit: AP
A man was killed in Myanmar on Saturday when police fired to disperse protesting opponents of a Feb 1 military coup in the second city of Mandalay, media and an ambulance service said.
They said police and striking shipyard workers faced off for hours in Mandalay and several people with serious wounds were taken to hospital after police fired guns to break up the crowd.
One man died of a head wound, according to media workers including Lin Khaing, an assistant editor with the Voice of Myanmar media outlet in the city, and a Mandalay emergency service.
Much of the country has been in uproar since the military deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup on February 1, with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets to protest against the junta.
Authorities have arrested hundreds of people since the putsch, many of them civil servants who had been boycotting work as part of a civil disobedience campaign.
Protesters hold out bullet cartridges and ammunition for slingshots after security forces fired on demonstrators
Credit: AFP
A man is carried after police dispersed protesters
Credit: AP
On Saturday, hundreds of police and soldiers gathered at Yadanarbon shipyard in Mandalay, on the Irrawaddy river.
Their presence sparked fears among nearby residents that authorities would try to arrest workers for taking part in the anti-coup movement.
Banging pots and pans in what has become a signature gesture of defiance, protesters started yelling at the police to leave.
But police opened fire with live rounds, rubber bullets and slingshot balls, dispersing the alarmed protesters.
"Six men with gunshot wounds arrived to our team. Two are seriously injured," a medical aide to doctors on the scene told AFP, declining to provide his name for fear of repercussions.
One of the men was hit in the abdomen and remains "in critical condition", he said.
"We transferred those who were seriously injured and in a critical condition to another place for intensive care, but we cannot reveal the place."
A wounded man holds a bandage to his bleeding head following a demonstration against the military coup
Credit: AFP
People hose their faces with water after tear gas was used
Credit: AP
A doctor on the scene confirmed that some protesters had been injured by live rounds.
"We do not have enough medicine for them to be treated here," he said, explaining the transfer.
Around the protest site, empty bullet cartridges were found, as well as slingshot ammunition including metal balls.
One woman received a head wound from a rubber bullet and emergency workers quickly administered first aid to her.
A Facebook video streamed live by a resident on the scene appeared to carry non-stop sounds of gunshots.
"They are shooting cruelly," said the resident, who appeared to be taking shelter on a nearby construction site.
"We have to find a safer place."
Since the nationwide protests started two weeks ago, authorities in some cities have deployed tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets against demonstrators.
There have been isolated incidents of live rounds being fired.
An anti-coup protester who was shot in the head during a February 9 demonstration in Naypyidaw died on Friday. Her doctors had confirmed to AFP that her injury was from a live bullet.
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