Terrified women and children hid in forests and security forces patrolled tense villages in western Myanmar on Wednesday residents said, after sectarian clashes which left five Muslims dead.
President Thein Sein was expected to visit the violence-racked area as part of his first official visit to Rakhine state since a wave of religious bloodshed erupted there last year. Sectarian bloodshed has overshadowed internationally praised political reforms and piled pressure on the former junta general, who took power in 2011.
The US said it was “deeply concerned” about the latest unrest and urged authorities to respond “decisively”, in a statement issued by its embassy in Yangon.
Around 800 Buddhist rioters torched homes and attacked local Muslims in a village in the area of Thandwe on Tuesday, according to the authorities. “The death toll rose to five — four men and a woman,” a Rakhine police official who did not want to be named told AFP, adding that the victims were all killed during Tuesday’s violence.
A 94-year-old Muslim woman, who suffered stab wounds, was among the dead. Four Rakhine Buddhists were injured in clashes and a fifth was missing, while 59 houses and a mosque have been torched since tensions flared on Saturday, police said.