The US has "deep concerns" about the situation in Myanmar following February's coup, urging the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to take action, the State Department said Tuesday.

A prominent ethnic rebel group in Myanmar suspended one of its key leaders this week, a spokesman said Saturday, as it investigates an alleged massacre of civilians on its territory.

Two elephants were being led to safety Wednesday after crossing from Myanmar to Bangladesh, getting stranded on a beach and nearly dying at sea.

Myanmar security forces backed by armoured vehicles clashed on Tuesday with a newly formed militia group in the second-biggest city of Mandalay, according to social media posts from the group and media reports.

A Myanmar military truck exploded in one of two blasts near an office of an army-backed political party in the country's biggest city on Friday, local media reported, and a senior rescue official said two people were killed and six wounded.

Myanmar's deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in person at a court hearing on Monday for the first time since her government was overthrown by the military in a Feb. 1 coup, her lawyer told Reuters.

The number of people from Myanmar seeking shelter in India has swelled to more than 15,000, with more likely to cross over as fighting intensifies in parts Myanmar following a coup, an Indian government official said on Tuesday.

Myanmar's ruling military, which is facing nationwide protests against the coup that removed the elected government three months ago, said on Friday it would not agree to a visit by a Southeast Asian envoy until it could establish stability.

Myanmar security forces opened fire on some of the biggest protests against military rule in days, killing at least five people on Sunday, media reported, three months after a coup plunged the country into crisis.

Explosions blasted off throughout Myanmar's largest city Yangon on Saturday as protesters held flash marches for democracy, defying a brutal junta that has held onto power for three blood-drenched months.

Myanmar anti-coup activists launched protests on Wednesday calling for the release of detained prisoners, as junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing was reported to be planning to attend a regional summit to discuss the crisis in the country.

Myanmar authorities detained a Japanese journalist in Yangon on Sunday evening, Japan's government said on Monday, adding that it was trying to seek his release.