Myanmar expresses regret over border bombing

Myanmar on Sunday openly responded for the first time to Friday's bombing incident across the border with China which left five Chinese citizens dead and eight others injured in China's southwestern Yunnan province.

According to state radio and TV, the government expressed regret over the incident, saying that authorities were cooperating with the Chinese side through diplomatic channel to uncover the truth of the incident, Xinhua reported.

A Myanmarese delegation has entered the Chinese territory for a join investigation into the incident.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin summoned Myanmar Ambassador Thit Linn Ohn in Beijing on Friday night, lodging solemn representations to him after a bomb dropped by a Myanmar warplane hit a sugarcane field in the border city of Lincang, Yunnan, killing five people and injuring eight others working there in the afternoon.

Liu urged the Myanmar side to thoroughly investigate the case and inform the Chinese side of the result.

Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Yang Houlan on Saturday also lodged the same urgent and solemn representation to the Myanmar government and military.

Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Fan Changlong also urged Myanmar to punish the perpetrators and apologise to and compensate the families of the victims.