About 10,000 Myanmar residents have fled to the neighboring Yunnan Province in southwest China by Friday morning amid a domestic war, the provincial government said.

Fighting broke out on Thursday afternoon in the Kokang area of Shan state in northeastern Myanmar, which caused panic among the residents and forced them to flee to the neighboring Yunnan province, the foreign affairs office of the Yunnan provincial government said in a statement.

Some Myanmar people are still fleeing to Yunnan, it said.

Yunnan is helping them to settle down in 7 settlements with supply of life necessities, medical care and disease control measures as humanitarian assistance.

Tense situation in N. Myanmar's Shan state

The situation in Myanmar's special region-1 in northern Shan state, bordering China's southwestern Yunnan Province, has been tense in past few days. 

According to reliable sources on Thursday, the exodus of border inhabitants into Yunnan border areas resulted from a check by Myanmar police on a gun-repair factory on Aug. 8 in the region, also known as Kokang, on suspicion of drug production.

The standoff between the local Kokang ethnic army and the police has caused panic among local people, the sources said.

Merchants said the situation has impacted the local border trade activities and the people's daily life.

The Kokang region's Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, led by Phone Kyar Shin, returned to the legal fold on March 31, 1989, but was allowed to retain arms, establish the northern Shan state special region-1 and enjoy self-administration on condition.

Covering an area of over 10,000 square kilometers, the Kokang region is located in Myanmar's northeastern part, bordering some areas of China's Yunnan Province. It has a population of about 150, 000.

So far, the Myanmar government has not made any comment on the situation. 

(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2009)