Crowds of protesters in central Yangon scattered on Thursday after more then 200 soldiers and police marched through the streets with loudspeakers, ordering people to go home or risk being shot, a witness said.

Earlier, one protester fell after shots were fired, witnesses said. It was not known if he was alive or dead or whether he had been hit by bullets or tear gas canisters fired by police near the Sule Pagoda, end-point of more than a week of marches.

The soldiers advanced up the street away from the pagoda, with their rifles at their sides. Police banged their rattan riot shields with batons.

'It's a terrifying noise,' one witness said.

The only people left on the streets were the odd terrified pedestrian, desperately scurrying for cover, the witness said. -Reuters