At least three anti-coup protesters were injured at Mandalay in Myanmar on Friday after security forces cracked down on them.
According to reports, two of them were shot in the chest by rubber bullets and another suffered a wound on his leg.
Protesters had gathered on a wide road outside a park in Mandalay in the early afternoon when security forces arrived and began firing what sounded like gunshots and using flash-bang grenades to disperse the crowd.
Bullets, shell casings, and other projectiles were later found by local residents on one of the main streets and shown to journalists.
The injured protesters were rushed to a private clinic for treatment.
One of the men who was shot in the chest with a rubber bullet also had a white bandage wrapped around his head.
The man with an injured leg was later photographed in a cast that stretched from his foot to his knee.
The confrontations underscore the rising tensions between a growing popular revolt and the generals who toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.
Also on Friday, a Japanese journalist covering a separate protest in Yangon, the country’s largest city, was detained by police and later released, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.