By Carola Frentzen

Naypyidaw (Myanmar) - According to reports and eyewitnesses, at least 22 people, including 20 children and young people, have been killed in a heavy airstrike on a school in the crisis-hit country of Myanmar .

The attack took place in the village of Ohe Htein Twin in the central region of Sagaing, which was particularly affected by the devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake at the end of March.

According to the news portal Mizzima News, the young people killed are between 8 and 17 years old. Two teachers are also among the victims. The airstrike occurred on Monday afternoon during school hours.

Dozens of other pupils are said to have been injured, some of them seriously, according to the news website "The Irrawaddy".

"They were just civilians and students. How could they do this to innocent children?" said eyewitness Mar Mar Lwin, who works as a rescue worker in the village, to the German Press Agency.

Since its coup in February 2021, the ruling military junta has repeatedly attacked resistance groups from the air, often hitting civilians.

The state television station MRTV denied the reports and claimed that subversive media were deliberately spreading false reports.

According to the independent research institute ISP-Myanmar, the junta has carried out more than 60 massacres throughout Myanmar since the overthrow and ousting of former head of government Aung San Suu Kyi by October 2024 alone.

These massacres - defined as the killing of at least 10 civilians at a time - have already claimed the lives of around 1,200 people, including children and the elderly.

Since the coup, the former Burma has descended into chaos and violence, with various rebel groups fighting against the army, some of them very successfully. Former head of government and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is in prison.

There are also natural disasters: Thousands of people died in the earthquake in March, and the situation in many areas has become even more desperate since then.