Yangon, Myanmar - Security forces fired automatic weapons into thousands of pro-democracy protesters for a second day Thursday, and the military government said nine people were killed and 11 wounded. Tens of thousands defied the ruling military junta's crackdown with a 10th straight day of demonstrations in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. Security forces also raided several monasteries overnight, beating monks and arresting more than 100, according to a monk at one monastery.
The protests are the stiffest challenge to the generals in two decades, a crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike, then expanded dramatically when monks started leading the marches. The crackdown has drawn increasing international pressure on the isolated regime.
Thousands of protesters ran through the streets of Yangon on Thursday after warning shots were fired into the crowds. Bloody sandals were left lying in the road.
"Give us freedom, give us freedom!" some shouted at the soldiers.
Ye Htut, a government spokesman, said riot police clashed with anti-government protesters in Yangon on Thursday, killing nine people and injuring 11. Thirty-one government troops were also injured, he said.
The government said one person was killed Wednesday, although media and dissident reports said up to eight died in the first day of the crackdown.
Witnesses said an estimated 70,000 people gathered in the streets, but there were only a handful of monks in the crowd, compared with previous days when thousands marched.
Witnesses and a Western diplomat told the AP that dozens of men were arrested and severely beaten after soldiers fired into one crowd of protesters. Troops in at least four locations fired into crowds after several thousand protesters ignored an order from security forces to disband, witnesses and diplomats said.
Some reports said the dead included Buddhist monks, who are widely revered in Myanmar, and the emergence of such martyrs could stoke public anger against the regime and escalate the violence.
Before dawn Thursday, security forces raided several monasteries considered hotbeds of the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
A monk at Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery pointed to bloodstains on the concrete floor and said a number of monks were beaten and at least 100 were taken away in vehicles. Shots were fired in the air and tear gas was used to disperse a crowd of 1,500 supporters during the chaotic raid, he said.
"Soldiers slammed the monastery gate with the car, breaking the lock and forcing it into the monastery," said the monk, who did not give his name for fear of reprisal. "They smashed the doors down, broke windows and furniture. When monks resisted, they shot at the monks and used tear gas and beat up the monks and dragged them into trucks."
Empty bullet shells, broken doors, furniture and glass were strewn on the ground.
A female lay disciple said a number of monks also were arrested at the Moe Gaung monastery, which was being guarded by soldiers. Both monasteries are located in Yangon's northern suburbs.
In Mandalay, the country's second-largest city, about 430 miles north of Yangon, five army trucks with soldiers and three fire trucks were seen driving into the Mahamuni Pagoda, where hundreds of monks were locked inside by security forces.
Another 60 soldiers blocked the road to the pagoda from the center of the city.
Also Thursday, security forces arrested Myint Thein, spokesman for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, family members said.
An Asian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity citing protocol told AP that Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, remained at her Yangon residence, where she has been held under house arrest for much of the past 18 years.
The diplomat said the junta had deployed more security forces around her house and on the road leading to it, with more than 100 soldiers inside the compound.
Myanmar's state-run newspaper blamed "saboteurs inside and outside the nation" for causing the protests in Yangon, and said the demonstrations were much smaller than the media were reporting.
The crackdown has prompted condemnations from officials in the U.S. and Europe and statements of concern from regional powerhouse China, Myanmar's chief diplomatic ally.
China has come under increasing pressure to use its regional influence to urge Myanmar's ruling junta to show restraint in dealing with the protests.
On Wednesday, China blocked the U.N. Security Council from condemning the government's actions, saying after an emergency meeting in New York that "these problems now at this stage (do) not constitute a threat to international and regional peace and stability."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing on Thursday that "China hopes that all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated."
The United States called on Myanmar's military leaders to open a dialogue with the protesters and urged China to do what it can to prevent further bloodshed.
"We all need to agree on the fact that the Burmese government has got to stop thinking that this can be solved by police and military, and start thinking about the need for genuine reconciliation with the broad spectrum of political activists in the country," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill in Beijing.
Hill was expected to discuss the violence in Myanmar with Chinese officials on the sidelines of North Korean nuclear disarmament talks this week in Beijing.
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Myanmar's government "should not stand in the way of its peoples' desire for freedom. They must stop this violence against peaceful protesters now."
European Union diplomats agreed to consider imposing more economic sanctions on Myanmar. Sanctions were first imposed in 1996 and include a ban on travel to Europe for top government officials, an assets freeze and a ban on arms sales to Myanmar.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was sending a special envoy to the region, urged the junta "to exercise utmost restraint toward the peaceful demonstrations taking place, as such action can only undermine the prospects for peace, prosperity and stability in Myanmar."