Myanmar plane enters Thai airspace prompting evacuations

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BANGKOK (AP) — A Myanmar fighter jet crossed the border into Thai airspace on Thursday, prompting Thai Air Force planes to rush and officials to order the evacuation of villages and communities. classrooms, officials said.

The Royal Thai Air Force said it dispatched two F-16 fighters to patrol the area after it received a report of a plane entering Thai airspace in an attack on Myanmar-held territory. a minority ethnic group. He asked the military attaché at the Thai Embassy in Myanmar to convey a warning to the Myanmar authorities and work with them to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

The sound of a fighter jet flying over Phop Phra district in Thailand’s Tak province alarmed local authorities, who ordered the evacuation of villages and schools in the area. Teachers at Wale School led more than 200 primary and middle school students from their classrooms to fortified buildings inside the school grounds for safety.

Local media reported that residents saw an aircraft that some identified as a MiG-29 circle several times in Thai airspace over villages and schools before firing on the Myanmar side.

Fighting between Myanmar government forces and ethnic guerrillas, many of whom live in border areas, has continued for decades but has intensified since the army seized power in February last year from a democratically elected government. elected. The fighting has sent waves of refugees from Myanmar into Thailand. They are then fired when the fighting recedes.

The Associated Press

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