DPA

YANGON A LARGE building used to house displaced Muslims was badly damaged by fire on Sunday in the capital of Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state, while witnesses heard gunfire in the downtown area.

Mra Tha Zin, a Buddhist woman living near the scene of the trouble in the Maw Leik quarter of Sittwe, said police and military units converged on the area.

She said the fire and shooting panicked many residents.

Myanmar’s President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in Rakhine state on June 10.

At least 50 people have been killed in fighting in the state since May 28, when a Buddhist woman was raped and murdered in Kyauk Ni Maw village, allegedly by three members of the Muslim Rohingya minority, who were arrested.

On Monday, a court found the three men guilty and sentenced them to death, although one had committed suicide in his jail cell on June 10.

The rape-murder sparked a series of clashes across Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh, displacing up to 30,000 people.

The Rohingya have lived in Rakhine state for generations.

In 1982, the Myanmar government passed legislation that defined them as immigrants from Bangladesh, making them stateless, and confiscated their property and businesses.

The 800,000 Rohingyas who remain in the state have for decades been subject to persecution and discrimination that have forced an estimated 1 million to flee.