Police opened fire to disperse healthcare staff and their families while they were preparing a dawn protest on 31st Street between 73rd and 74th Streets in Chanayethazan Township, Mandalay city at about 6 am today.

Doctors, nurses, medical students, pharmacists, traditional medicine practitioners and their families were gathered in the place between 73rd and 74th Streets, the place between 31st and 32nd Streets and the place at the corner of Mandalay University of Medicine and Aung San Hostel Street. There were dispersed by police before their protest.  

During the crackdown, two child specialists were arrested and another shot to the arm, according to the medical circle.

Despite the dispersal of the health staff before their protest, several other places in the city saw protesters going round.

Various protest columns namely Phayagyi Pagoda, Ba-Ka-Tha (Student Union of Burma) and education, engineers, monk union and industrial zone complex are staging march protests in Mandalay.  

“Before 6 am, they (police) opened fire near Aung San Hostel and made arrests. This is the first time the medical family’s protest was broken up. Two co-workers of mine were arrested,” a doctor said regarding the crackdown on the dawn protest.

Currently, security forces are clearing the barricades in the city streets, seizing the makeshift gates at the edge of the streets and patrolling in the city.