MANDALAY (REUTERS, AFP) - Two people were killed in Myanmar’s second largest city Mandalay on Saturday (Feb 20) when police fired to disperse protesting opponents of a Feb 1 military coup, emergency workers said, the bloodiest day in more than two weeks of demonstrations.
The deaths came after a young woman protester died on Friday after being shot in the head last week as police dispersed a crowd in the capital, Naypyitaw, the first death among anti-coup demonstrators.
Protesters took to the streets on Saturday in several cities and towns with members of ethnic minorities, poets and transport workers among those demanding an end to military rule and the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others.
But tension escalated quickly in Mandalay where police and soldiers were confronting striking shipyard workers and other protesters at Yadanarbon shipyard in Mandalay, on the Irrawaddy river.
Some of the demonstrators fired catapults at police as they played cat and mouse through riverside streets. Police responded with tear gas and gun fire, though it was initially not clear if they were using live ammunition or rubber bullets.
“Twenty people were injured and two are dead,” said Ko Aung, a leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service agency.
One man died from a head wound, media workers including Lin Khaing, an assistant editor with the Voice of Myanmar media outlet in the city, and a Mandalay emergency service said.
A volunteer doctor confirmed there had been two deaths. He said: “One shot in the head died at the spot. Another one died later with a bullet wound to the chest.”
A doctor at 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.
A medical aide to doctors at the scene, who declined to provide his name for fear of repercussions, told AFP: “We transferred those who were seriously injured and in a critical condition to another place for intensive care, but we cannot reveal the place.”
Police were not available for comment.
The 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.
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 at the scene appeared to carry non-stop sounds of gunshots.
“They are shooting cruelly,” said the resident, who appeared to be taking shelter at a nearby construction site. “We have to find a safer place.”
Since the nationwide protests started two weeks ago, the authorities in some cities have deployed tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets against demonstrators, with isolated incidents of live rounds being fired.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnN0cmFpdHN0aW1lcy5jb20vYXNpYS9zZS1hc2lhL3Nob290aW5nLWF0LW15YW5tYXItYW50aS1jb3VwLXByb3Rlc3QtaW5qdXJlcy1hdC1sZWFzdC1maXZl0gEA?oc=5
2021-02-20 14:02:01Z
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