Two British backpackers calmly made for their bicycles and escaped an ancient temple town in northern Rakhine as the attraction erupted with gun and artillery fire on Sunday.
Christopher Caddy, 32, from Manchester, England, posted on Twitter two videos showing their hair-raising encounter with troops at the historic Rakhine kingdom of Mrauk U.
The past two days has seen fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army spread to the popular tourist site in a burst of violence that has injured six local people, according to local news outlet The Irrawaddy.
The backpacker tweeted that they had left Mrauk U on Monday, March 18 after spending the day exploring the temples and seemingly dodging bullets.
The first video is shot inside the corridor of a temple on Caddy’s phone. “If you are wondering what that noise is outside, that is just the Myanmary army just firing rifles and exploding some stuff,” he says.
His fiancée coolly suggests they should leave, to which he replies in the most British way imaginable: “Why, because of all the warfare outside?”
The pair go back and forth for a while as gun fire crackles in the background. Then Caddy takes the time to admire a stupa before wondering aloud if this is the last video he will post. “I should have thought about something to say,” he finishes.
But the tourists are back in a second video and near their bicycles, where they notice the security officer and vendors have “legged it.”
As Caddy points the camera to soldiers moving on a hilltop, his partner, called Jen, says: “And the fire is only getting closer dear.” And they also hit the road.
Thousands of people have recently been displaced by the spreading conflict, which has neared the state capital Sittwe.
The military intensified operations against the Arakan Army after armed rebels attacked police outposts, killing 13 officers in early January.
The rebels are fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, a population that also stands accused of aiding the military in their expulsion of the Rohingya Muslims in 2017.
The group has expanded its ranks since its formation in 2009 and is now believed to have several thousand recruits.
It is feared the sentencing of a popular Rakhine politician for alleged treason yesterday could further inflame tensions in the region.
