SITTWE, Myanmar- Dozens of people have been killed in a surge in sectarian violence in Myanmar, an official said on Tuesday, as international pressure grew for an end to the bloodshed.
A state of emergency has been declared in western Rakhine state, which has been rocked by a wave of rioting and arson, posing a major test for the reformist government which took power last year.
"About 25 people have been killed during the unrest," a senior government official told AFP, requesting anonymity. He did not give details of how they died or whether they were Buddhists or Muslims.
A further 41 people were wounded in five days of unrest, he said. The death toll does not include 10 Muslims who were killed on June 3 by a Buddhist mob in apparent revenge for the rape and murder of a woman, which sparked the violence in Rakhine. Rights organisations fear the number of people killed could be much higher than the official figure.
AFP reporters have been unable to visit many of the affected areas for security reasons.
Gunfire rattled the state capital Sittwe on Tuesday and there was a heavy security presence, according to an AFP reporter. Plumes of smoke rose from fires dotted around the area.
Separately, police in neighbouring Bangladesh said a Muslim died in a hospital there after he was allegedly shot by Myanmar security forces before escaping across the border.
Rakhine, a predominantly Buddhist state bordering Bangladesh, is home to a large number of Muslims including the Rohingya, described by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.
More than 500 Rohingya, many of them women and children, have attempted to get to Bangladesh by sea in rickety fishing boats to escape the escalating violence, but Dhaka has been turning them away.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) urged Bangladesh to let them in.
"On these boats are women and children, and injured people," UNHCR representative Craig Sanders told AFP in Dhaka.
"We are appealing to the Bangladesh government to keep open its border and provide emergency and other humanitarian assistance."
The United States urged an immediate halt to the deadly sectarian unrest, which has prompted the United Nations to evacuate more than 40 workers - including foreigners - and their families from Rakhine state.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday called for "all parties to exercise restraint", adding that "the United States continues to be deeply concerned".
The humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), one of the few international aid groups with a presence in the area, said that it had suspended its activities, disrupting essential treatment.
Warning that the violence was running "out of control", New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for international observers to be deployed in Rakhine.
"Why is the international community pulling out at this time? Is the threat at a level that warrants it?" said Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW's Asia division.
"The government of Burma (Myanmar) has thrown a black veil over the situation in Rakhine state," he told AFP.
The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya to be foreigners, while many citizens see them as illegal immigrants and view them with hostility, describing them as "Bengalis".
Rioting has seen hundreds of homes set on fire across Rakhine.
An ethnic Rakhine fireman said some Rohingya villagers had been injured as they escaped burning homes near Sittwe.
"We all have sympathy for them (the Rohingya). We saw women and children running for their lives. We are all humans," he added, but asked not to be named.
The violence poses a serious challenge to Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein, as the nation takes tentative steps towards democracy after decades of authoritarian rule.
Animosity between local Buddhists and the Rohingya appears increasingly intractable with both sides trading angry accusations over the surge in violence this month.
Experts say radical elements on both sides may be trying to benefit from the unrest.
"Some Buddhist hardliners probably want to see the Rohingya purged from Burmese soil," said Nicholas Farrelly, a southeast Asia expert at the Australian National University.
"On the other side there are Rohingya who want the world to pay much more consistent attention to their plight."
According to the UN, there are nearly 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar, mostly in Rakhine. Another one million or more are thought to live in other countries.