Burma's military regime is suspected of cutting public internet access today to prevent news and images of its violent repression of pro-democracy protests leaking out.

Internet cafes were closed and an official at Burma's main internet service provider said that the connection was not working because of a damaged cable, the Reuters news agency reported.

As the brutal suppression of the protests continued, soldiers and police were reported to be using wooden and barbed wire barriers to seal off the centre of Rangoon, where tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating. The blocked-off area around the city's main Buddhist shrines was expanding as the troops gradually moved the barriers outwards, street by street.

The AFP news agency reported that as many as 10,000 protesters had managed to assemble nonetheless, although the number could not be confirmed.

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Multimedia

• In pictures: Burma violence

There were reports of a shot being fired as security services charged a group of a several hundred people. Some of the protesters were said to be taunting them in English: "F*** you, army, we only want democracy", then retreating into the side streets.

Soldiers were stationed inside the monasteries in the main cities and were apparently preventing Burma's deeply revered Buddhist clergy from emerging to seek food in case they rejoined the protests.

"The monks have done their job and now we must carry on with the movement,” a student leader told the protesters near Sule Pagoda, who clapped and shouted slogans.

“This is a non-violent mass movement,” he shouted as the protesters tried to move towards the cordoned-off shrine.

In a dangerous game of cat and mouse, they moved as close as possible before being confronted by advancing police and soldiers, only to scatter and then regroup and try to advance again.

"We were told security forces had the monks under control," said an Asian diplomat who asked not to be named. He cautioned that getting the monks out of the way might embolden the authorities to take tougher measures to mop up the remaining protesters.

The city of five million people was said to be unnaturally quiet, as people stayed away from the city centre where nine people were acknowledged by Burmese state media to have died yesterday, including a 51-year-old Japanese photographer.

Japan has demanded a full explanation of the killing, and threatened to suspend aid to the country.

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