Wed Sep 26, 6:00 AM ET

PARIS - The Myanmar military opened fire on crowds of protesters in Yangon, almost certainly causing casualties, a French diplomat in the city said Wednesday.

"Shots were fired by the security forces, first in the air, then at the demonstrators. We cannot know if many people were injured but we can be sure that blood was spilled," Emmanuel Mouriez, number two at the French embassy, told French radio RTL.

"We have several witness accounts describing people lying on the ground," he added.

Soldiers and police in junta-ruled Myanmar fired tear gas on about 1,000 protesters led by Buddhist monks early Wednesday as they started a march from a landmark Yangon pagoda, witnesses said.

Despite the crackdown, tens of thousands of protesters regrouped in downtown Yangon an hour later, according to witnesses.