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Rangoon (AP) - In Myanmar, after the bloodiest day so far since the military coup a month ago, there is horror at the violence of the security forces.

According to the United Nations, 38 people died on Wednesday alone when police shot demonstrators with live ammunition in different parts of the country.

"Today was the blackest day since the coup on February 1st," said the UN special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener.

Videos on social networks showed police officers aiming at people indiscriminately and dragging corpses across the floor.

Schraner Burgener also reported on "very disturbing" videos showing violence and the obvious shooting of a protester.

"It seems that the police are using weapons such as nine-millimeter submachine guns, ie live ammunition."

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The military had put a coup against the de facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi about a month ago.

The reason given by the generals was irregularities in the November parliamentary elections, which Suu Kyi had won by a clear margin.

The 75-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate is under house arrest.

The demonstrators are demanding the reinstatement of the former icon of freedom.

There were again many dead in the former capital, Rangoon, one of the centers of the protests.

"About six military vehicles drove onto a bridge under which we were and were demonstrating peacefully," said Min Han Htet, the president of a local student association, the dpa.

"They were soldiers from the army and they just shot us."

Several participants died right in front of his eyes.

"We thought they would aim at us with rubber bullets, but it was live ammunition," said the 22-year-old.

The German embassy in Rangoon and several other western embassies posted black profile pictures on Facebook as a reaction and a sign of sadness.

The US embassy wrote: “It is unbearable for us to see the loss of so many lives in Myanmar.

(...) Aiming at civilians is abhorrent. "

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The European Union also sharply condemned the brutal approach.

"Unarmed civilians and medical workers were shot, which is a clear violation of international law," said the EU spokeswoman for foreign policy, Nabila Massrali.

Hundreds of people have been arrested, while the military is increasingly taking action against the media.

“More and more journalists have been arbitrarily arrested, detained and charged.

The persecution and intimidation of media workers who just do their job is unacceptable, ”stressed Massrali.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210304-99-680057 / 2