'Burned alive': Thousands of refugees flee violence in Myanmar

Tens of thousands of people have crossed into Bangladesh as they flee violence in western Myanmar, with one refugee claiming people in his village were burned alive.

Security officials in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority are accusing each other of burning down villages and committing atrocities in Rakhine state.

The military has said nearly 400 people, most of them insurgents, have died in armed clashes.

The violence has triggered a flood of refugees crossing mostly on foot into Bangladesh, though some were fleeing in wooden boats.

Refugees who had arrived at the Bangladeshi fishing village of Shah Porir Dwip described bombs exploding and Rohingyas being burned alive.

"We fled to Bangladesh to save our lives," said a man who only gave his first name, Karim.

"The military and extremist Rakhine are burning us, burning us, killing us, setting our village on fire."

He said he paid 12,000 Bangladeshi taka, or about £116, for each of his family members to be smuggled on a wooden boat to Bangladesh after soldiers killed 110 Rohingya in their village of Kunnapara, near the coastal town of Maungdaw.

"The military destroyed everything. After killing some Rohingya, the military burned their houses and shops," he said.

"We have a baby who is eight days only, and an old woman who is 105."

On Saturday evening British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson issued a statement condemning the violence.

Satellite imagery analysed by Human Rights Watch shows hundreds of buildings had been destroyed in at least 17 sites across Rakhine state since August 25, including some 700 structures that appeared to have been burned down in just the village of Chein Khar Li, the international rights watchdog said in a statement..

The violence erupted when insurgents attacked Myanmar police and paramilitary posts in what they said was an effort to protect minority Rohingya.

In response, the military unleashed what it called "clearance operations" to root out the insurgents.

Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say security forces and vigilantes both have attacked and burned villages, shooting civilians and causing others to flee.

Longstanding tension between the Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists erupted in bloody rioting in 2012, forcing more than 100,000 Rohingya into displacement camps, where many still live.