Airstrikes launched by Myanmar’s military junta forces on a village in the central Asian country’s Sagaing region on Tuesday killed at least 170 people, according to latest media reports on Friday. and according to a villager who participated in the cremation of the corpses.

There has been no official casualty count from the raid on the village of Pazi Gi so far, although the junta has confirmed an operation in the area.

A villager who participated in the cremation of the bodies – who asked not to be named for his safety – told AFP that his team had revised the death toll upwards, from 130 dead on Thursday to 171 on Friday.

109 men, 24 women and 38 children were killed.

The attack injured another 53 people.

The BBC’s Burmese service also put the death toll at 171, while the Mandalay Free Press news website reported at least 170 deaths.

The so-called Government of National Unity – a body founded by former lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, many of whom are in exile – reported 168 dead on Twitter yesterday.

The village of Pazi Gyi was deserted yesterday; its inhabitants were too frightened to return.

The airstrike, on the eve of Buddhist New Year celebrations, sparked an international outcry.

Britain, Myanmar’s former colonial ruler, has called for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the attack.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has been criticized for its inaction on the Myanmar crisis, on Thursday “strongly condemned” the airstrike.

In Sagaing district, near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, there is strong resistance to the military junta: heavy fighting has been going on there for months.

The military junta confirmed on Wednesday that it had carried out airstrikes in the area; it said some of the deaths were due to landmines planted by rebels.

The military also announced on Friday that insurgents had dropped four bombs from a UAV, killing eight people, including five children, and injuring 31 others in the village of Que Pon, also in Shangai District.