A seven year-old girl has died after being shot at her home in Myanmar by security forces, staff at a funeral service have said.
The child, who has not been named, died of bullet wounds when security forces opened fire in a suburb of Mandalay, according to news agency Reuters.
It would make her the youngest victim so far in a crackdown against opposition to last month’s military coup in the country.
Two men on a motorbike warn protesters security forces are coming at a demonstration in Mandalay. Pic: AP
Soldiers shot at her father but hit the girl who was sitting on his lap inside their home, her sister told Myanmar Now media outlet, which said two men were also killed in the Chanmyathazi township.
At least one other person was killed in shooting elsewhere in the city, according to locals, Reuters added.
At least eight people, including a boy whose age was given as either 14 or 15, and two rescue workers, were killed in the same area on Monday, Myanmar Now reported.
Pictures of the teenager, named as Tun Tun Aung, were published by Reuters.
Regime forces had opened fire despite no protests taking place nearby, Myanmar Now said.
Witnesses told the website about 300 heavily-armed troops in more than a dozen trucks arrived at the complex with two bulldozers at around 10am on Monday.
Anti-coup protesters run from riot policemen and soldiers in Mandalay
A photograph of a man lying dead on a stretcher in Mandalay was published by the Associated Press on Tuesday.
A doctor told the agency the man was shot and killed by security forces during an anti-coup protest.
It comes on the day the military junta, which seized power in the coup on 1 February, defended its actions and the violent measures used to suppress opposition.
At a news conference in the capital Naypyitaw, reporters were played a video of a former political colleague of ousted national leader Aung San Suu Kyi claiming he had handed over large amounts of cash and gold to her personally.
The country’s military has said it is proof of corruption – allegations denied by her lawyer.
Flowers at the funeral for Tun Tun Aung,, who was reportedly killed in his hut when security forces opened fire, in Mandalay. Pic: RADIO FREE ASIA/via REUTERS
The military showed seized homemade weapons and videos of street battles to prove protesters are themselves violent.
But opponents of the takeover only began using organised violence after more than 100 demonstrators had been shot dead by police and soldiers.
The independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has verified 261 protesters’ deaths nationwide but says the actual total, including cases where verification has been difficult, is probably much higher.
It said 2,682 people have also been arrested or charged since the coup, with 2,302 still detained or sought for arrest.
Street demonstrations against the takeover continue and marches were held before dawn on Tuesday in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, and elsewhere.
On Monday, the EU and the US imposed more sanctions on groups or individuals linked to the coup.