Burma sectarian violence – in pictures

An ethnic Rakhine man holds homemade weapons as he walks past houses burned during fighting between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities in Sittwe Photograph: Reuters

Rohingya men are seen among houses set on fire during fighting in Sittwe Photograph: Reuters

Police officers carry an unidentified body to a truck in Sittwe Photograph: Khin Maung Win/AP

Police officers patrol the streets of Sittwe with rifles Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Rohingya people pass the time at their slum near the sea in the town of Sittwe. Some 800,000 Rohingya live in Burma's northern Rakhine state under severe government restrictions Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Police officers stand guard as firefighters work to extinguish blazes during fighting in Sittwe Photograph: Reuters

A Buddhist monk looks from a window behind a police officer in Sittwe Photograph: Reuters

Residents take refuge at a monastery in Sittwe Photograph: Khin Maung Win/AP

A Buddhist man holds a machete as he and other members of the community guard their homes in Sittwe Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

A Buddhist man injured in the clashes is treated in hospital in Sittwe Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Police stand guard in Sittwe. Burma sent troops and naval vessels to the western state of Rakhine after seven people died in the worst fighting in years between Rohingya and Buddhists Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Rohingya children try to cross the Naf river in Teknaf by boat. Bangladesh border guards and coastguard patrol teams pushed back eight boats carrying more than 300 Rohingya Muslims, mostly women and children, fleeing religious violence Photograph: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images

Bangladesh border guards push back Rohingya Muslims as they try to cross the Naf into Bangladesh in Teknaf Photograph: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images

A Buddhist monk stands in the debris of burned houses still smouldering in Sittwe. With fearful residents cowering indoors, security forces patrolling a tense town collected bodies from the debris of homes burned down over the weekend in some of the country's deadliest sectarian bloodshed in years Photograph: Khin Maung Win/AP