Police seal students inside monastery

Riot police sealed hundreds of Myanmar student protesters inside a monastery yesterday in a tense standoff, activists said, blocking their planned march to Yangon to call for education reforms.

Scores of security personnel encircled the monastery in Letpadan town, some 130 kilometres north of Myanmar's main city Yangon, trapping around 300 students inside since early morning.

Authorities appear increasingly uneasy over the months-long rallies by different student organisations, which have persisted in some areas despite parliamentary efforts to rethink a controversial education bill.