Villagers ransacked a church in Bago Region on Sunday after a teenager who lived there was accused of murdering a four-year-old girl.
The 14-year-old, one of several orphans who stayed at the church in Nyaung Wun Village, allegedly killed the young child and disposed of her body nearby.
After locals learned of the crime, scores of people stormed the building, smashing religious iconography and destroying the bedrooms, Eleven Media reported.
The accused boy has been detained by local police.
It was not immediately clear whether there was any anti-Christian dimension to the attack, but social media users on Tuesday raised fears of religious violence ahead of November elections.
Christian communities have generally encountered less tension with Myanmar’s Buddhist majority than Muslim communities, but earlier this month reports of a prominent monk who built a stupa on top of church land caused widespread alarm.
Photos / Eleven Media / Facebook
