Around 700,000 people in Myanmar are estimated to have lost Internet access after attacks on telecommunication equipment run by Mytel, the partly army-controlled company said amid reports that dozens of its towers were damaged.

The explosions have occurred since the National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration formed to resist the army's February 1 coup, declared last week a “people’s defensive war” against the junta.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was toppled, sparking nationwide anger, strikes, protests, and the emergence of anti-junta militia.

There has been an upsurge in bloodshed in some areas after the underground NUG called on the new militia, known as People’s Defence Forces, to target the junta. “The destruction of telecommunications infrastructure is depriving the means to access information, education, and important services on the Internet for hundreds of thousands,” said a Mytel spokesperson.