Dozens killed and 47 wounded after paraglider drops bombs on Buddhist festival in Myanmar

At least 24 people have been killed and 47 wounded after a motorised paraglider dropped bombs on a crowd protesting Myanmar’s military government at a candlelight vigil.

Around 100 people had gathered in the township of Chaung U for a national holiday when the attack took place at on Monday, according to the BBC.

The protest took place at around 8pm local time, as the group gathered in a field.

Two bombs were dropped on the crowd using a motorised paraglider, a device that can seat up to three soldiers, the broadcaster said.

Locals told BBC Burmese that the bodies of the victims were difficult to identify in the aftermath of the explosions. The attack lasted around seven minutes, according to a spokesperson for the government-in-exile.

“Children were completely torn apart,” a woman who helped organise the event for the annual festival Thadingyut told AFP.

One 30-year-old protester told Reuters: “Initially, I thought the whole lower part of my body had been severed. I touched it and I realized the legs are still there.”

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He added: “This is mass murder. They are committing it openly”.

“The military has used paramotors to bomb this area approximately six times before this latest incident,” Ko Thant, an information officer for the Chaung-U Township People's Defence Force, told the publication.

The first recorded use of paramotors in the region came in December 2024 and they have since been deployed more widely since, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

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“The death toll may rise, as some people's bodies were so badly damaged by the bomb blast that they are difficult to recognise,” a spokesperson for Amnesty told The Independent. “Survivors are now being treated in local hospitals. Among the dead and injured are children, students and people in their 50s.”

He added: “Activists involved in organising the event were also said to be among the casualties. There were no clashes or fighting in the village where this took place. This was an attack on civilians that should be investigated as a war crime, one among many occurring in Myanmar on a routine basis.”

The Independent has contacted Myanmar’s national office for comment. The military has previously denied accusations that it targets civilians.

The United Nations reported that the junta had used the devices to carry out attacks in Myanmar in April, following a deadly earthquake in March that killed at least 3,600 people and injured over 5,000.

The People’s Defence Force, groups of volunteer militias fighting the military government, had received reports of an airborne attack during the gathering. They tried to end the event, but the paragliders arrived earlier than expected.

Protesters had also called for the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, who was jailed after being deposed following a democratic election.

The United Nations estimates that up to 40 per cent of the population requires humanitarian assistance in the conflict-ridden region.

“The sickening reports emerging from the ground in central Myanmar following a nighttime attack late on Monday should serve as a gruesome wake-up call that civilians in Myanmar need urgent protection,” read a statement by Amnesty International on Tuesday, calling the move a part of a “disturbing trend” of violence against civilians.

“This would be the latest in a long line of attacks that stretch back almost five years to the start of the 2021 military coup,” it continued.

“As the military attempts to solidify power with a stage-managed election later this year, it is intensifying an already brutal campaign against pockets of resistance.”

Last week, Rohingya Muslims attended the first United Nations high-level meeting dedicated to their plight and pleaded with the international community to prevent the mass killings taking place in Myanmar and help those who are part of the persecuted group to lead normal lives.