According to the governor of Mae Hong Song province, hundreds of Thai villagers who live along Thailand’s border with Myanmar were evacuated to safe areas after Karen rebels attacked a Burmese army outpost near the frontier on Tuesday.

A stray bullet from the other side of the border wounded a female evacuee in the knee, the governor said about Tuesday’s fighting nearby in Myanmar’s Karen state.

Meanwhile in Bangkok, the Thai foreign ministry said that if any displaced ethnic Karen were to flee into Thailand, the country would give them sanctuary and humanitarian aid.

The flare-up in fighting along the border came three days after a consensus reached among leaders at a special meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) called on all parties in Myanmar to cease violence immediately.

Sisanda Mpele.