About 1,300 people have fled to Thailand from eastern Myanmar, officials said on Saturday, as fresh fighting broke out in a border town recently occupied by ethnic guerrillas.

Karen fighters last week seized the last Myanmar army outpost in and around Myawaddy, which is connected to Thailand by two bridges over the Moai River.

Pittayakorn Phetcharat, the police chief of Thailand’s Mae Sot region, said the latest clashes came in the morning between Karen guerrillas who were hiding near the Second Thailand-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, a major crossing point for trade with Thailand. triggered by an attack by the Burmese army. He estimated that about 1,300 people fled to Thailand.

Thai officials reported that people began crossing the border after clashes broke out in several areas of Myawaddy on Friday.

The fall of Myawaddy is a major setback for the military that seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021. Myanmar’s once-powerful armed forces have suffered an unprecedented series of defeats since October, losing large swaths of territory including border posts to both ethnic minority fighters who have fought for greater autonomy for decades. Democratic guerrillas who took up arms after the military takeover.

Clashes involving Karen army drone strikes and Myanmar military airstrikes had subsided by midday Saturday compared with the morning, but Mae Sot police chief Pittayakorn Phetcharat said he Sporadic gunshots can still be heard. He said Thai authorities would move the refugees to safer areas.

Video from the Thai border showed Thai soldiers standing guard near the bridge, with explosions and gunfire in the background. People with children waded across the river with their belongings and were received by Thai officials on the river bank. Some people were seen taking shelter in buildings on the Myanmar side of the river.

Thai Prime Minister Sretha Thawisin wrote on social media platform X on Saturday that he was closely monitoring the situation at the border.

“I do not want to see any such conflict have any impact on Thailand’s territorial integrity, and we are prepared to protect our borders and the security of our people. At the same time, we are also prepared to provide humanitarian assistance if necessary.”

In March, Thailand provided the first batch of humanitarian aid to Myanmar, helping approximately 20,000 displaced people.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balangura told reporters on Friday that Thailand was currently working to expand its aid program.