Myanmar coup: Aung San Suu Kyi arrested as military seizes control
Some 500 police and soldiers gathered at a shipyard in Myanmar’s second largest city of Mandalay to disperse workers and other demonstrators, sparking an hours-long face-off during which protesters launched catapults at police.
Security forces dispersed the crowd with gunfire and other forms of force, leaving two dead and 20 others injured, according to the Irrawaddy news website and a leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service agency, Ko Aung.
The military’s claims were rejected by Myanmar’s electoral commission.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was "deeply concerned" by reports that security forces had fired on protesters and continued to detain and harass demonstrators and others.
"We stand with the people of Burma," Price wrote on Twitter. Myanmar is also known as Burma.
Britain said it would consider further action against those involved in violence against protesters, and the French foreign ministry called the violence "unacceptable."
In Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, several thousand young people gathered at two sites to chant slogans, while thousands massed peacefully in Mandalay.
“They aimed at the heads of unarmed civilians. They aimed at our future,” a young protester told the crowd in the central city.
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