An account of how government soldiers ransacked a monastery was among a number of reports written about the events unfolding in Rangoon by bloggers.

Soldiers broke into the monastery with an army truck in the early hours of Thursday before taking away money and "shedding blood," one blogger wrote.

"We belive (sic) the soldier were given amphetamine tablets - i am sure no soldier will dare do like this," Ka Daung Nyin Thar wrote on his blog, attaching alongside pictures of upturned rooms and dried pools of blood in the corridors of Ngew Kyar Yan monastery.

Another blogger claimed that fire engines were being used to wash blood off the streets after soldiers "opened fire" into groups of people.

Ko Htike said that soldiers were paying citizens $7 each to dress up in yellow robes to look like monks and then set about attacking mosques in order to precipitate clashes between Buddhists and Muslims.

"If u hear or see the news that monks are destroying the Mosque these are no real monks. They are just fakes. As u all know, the real monks have no intention like that,' wrote Htike, a London-based blogger who was collating reports from 10 people within the capital.

Authorities in Burma struggled to contain the raft of hastily written reports and pictures which were posted up by bloggers in defiance of the regime.

Burma's military junta has been described as one of the most authoritarian in the world when it comes to restricting access to content on the internet.

In a report by the Open Net Initiative, an academic group, earlier this year it was rated as applying either substantial or pervasive filtering to every type of content - despite the fact that only 1 per cent of the population is online.

"Myanmar maintains one of the world's most restrictive systems of control, and its government has targeted online independent media and dissent with the same commitment it has demonstrated to stifling traditional media and voices for reform," the report said.

The blog Drlunswe had images - apparently taken at the Ngew Kyar Yan monastery - of rooms strewn with red robes and flip-flops, many blood-spattered, left along corridors.

In a message posted at 20:58 Burmese time today, Mc Mg Mg wrote: "Plz tell to everyone who do not have internet access."

Another message read: "To all folk, it is really bad in YGN (Rangoon), pLs can someone do something for our country, now inside YGN it has been look like War Zone, i even heard shooting over the phone."

Several Burma-focused news services posted hourly updates on the situation on the ground.

At 3:35pm today the Mizzina agency, which is run by Burmese dissidents, wrote: "An International aid agency worker said, the army gave only two minutes to disperse before they open fire on protestors at Sule."

Irrawaddy,a magazine devoted to south east Asia, also posted accounts of clashes between security forces and protesters when crowds continued to roam the streets after the 6pm curfew began.

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