Fighting between Myanmar government forces and militant groups intensified on Wednesday. Starting from around noon Beijing Time, fierce gunfire and explosions could be heard in China’s border town of Nansan in Yunnan Province.

Unconfirmed online sources say white phosphorus armaments, self-igniting weapons that can be used as a smoke screen, were applied during the fighting. For safety reasons, the border checkpoint at the town was closed. The clashes appeared to simmer down around 8 pm BJT. 

Wednesday’s intensive crossfire comes one day after a bomb hit a residential building on the Myanmar side of the border. Gunshots could be heard in the border town of Nansan. The local police department cordoned off major streets near the border, but passers-by and some vehicles could still be seen on some of the streets.

Myanmar News Agency reports that the country’s Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services, held talks with Hong Liang, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar in Nay Pyi Taw on Tuesday. The two discussed ways to promote political dialogue towards a peace process to resolve tensions. Hong voiced how the current situation in Kokang is harming peace and stability in the border areas of the two countries.

On the same day, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued a statement saying more than 30,000 people have fled the Kokang region, in the aftermath of clashes that began on March 6. Of that total, over 20,000 have crossed the border into neighbouring China’s Yunnan Province, with the rest either internally displaced to other locations in Shan State, or forming part of a contingent of more than 10,000 migrant workers that have left Kokang to return to homes elsewhere in Myanmar.