At least 30 people, including three monks, have been “brutally murdered” by the military in south-eastern Myanmar, according to an insurgent group.

Photos and footage shared by the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) — one of several armed units resisting the junta’s takeover — show the devastating aftermath of the massacre, which took place in a village in southern Shan state.

The region, which borders Thailand, has seen some of the most intense clashes between armed resistance groups and the military.

According to the KNDF, the junta shelled Nan Nein village on Saturday, before entering the village and executing people who had been sheltering inside a monastery.

Footage shows bodies lying in dried blood outside the monastery walls, which are riddled with bullet holes. Some of the victims are cloaked in the distinctive orange robes worn by Buddhist monks and many have what appear to be multiple gunshot wounds.

“It was like the [military] made them line up in front of the monastery and brutally shot them all, including the monks,” a KNDF spokesperson said, according to a local newspaper in the region, the Kantarawaddy Times.

The group added that more than 200 buildings were also burned down and warned that military operations are ongoing in the area.

The Daily Telegraph was unable to independently verify the details.

Independent reports state that since the coup in February 2021 at least 2,900 civilians have died.

The latest incident comes after reports last week that soldiers had rampaged through several villages in the central Sagaing region, raping, beheading and killing at least 17 people.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The increased frequency of brutal massacres in Myanmar shows how SAC junta commanders have given the green light to their troops to indiscriminately attack civilian targets without hesitation.

“Massacring civilians in a hail of bullets at a Buddhist monastery shows the desperate savagery of a regime wholly divorced from the Burmese people who will, no doubt, view this latest act with absolute horror.”

The Daily Telegraph, London