Protesters lie on the ground after police opened fire to disperse an anti-coup protest in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 3, 2021. Reuters photographer Soe Zeya Tun: “Myanmar faced chaos across the entire country after the military coup. I reached out to photographers I knew based in Myanmar to send us photos of the unfolding situation. With the internet cut off across the country, it became challenging to communicate with the photographers on the ground. Reuters had heard about a young woman named Angel, also known as Kyal Sin, who had just been killed at a protest on March 3. Images of her had begun to circulate on social media. On this particular day we had received photos from a freelance photographer at one of the protests and noticed that they seemed to be from the same protest where Angel had been killed. We asked the photographer, whose identity Reuters is withholding for his security, to carefully look back at all his frames and within minutes he had found four or five frames of Angel just before her death.” The Freelance photographer whose identity Reuters is withholding for his security said “I had been taking photos at the anti-coup protest before police and soldiers started dispersing the protesters. This photo was taken as they began to fire toward the protesters using rubber bullets, live ammunition and tear gas. After capturing this image, I was only able to continue taking photos for a couple more minutes before having to take shelter in an apartment nearby, as the situation became too dangerous. The photo was taken a moment before Angel died.”
Photo/Stringer via Reuters
