U.S. Embassy in Myanmar apologizes for inconvenience by security drill

The U.S. Embassy in Yangon, the largest city of Myanmar, apologized to neighbors and others in local areas for the inconvenience caused by its unannounced security drill on Sunday evening, the embassy said via its Facebook account on Monday.

The embassy stated that it held a routine security drill which inadvertently inconvenienced passers-by and a neighboring business.

No one was injured during the incident. The embassy operations are running as normal at present, according to the announcement.

The embassy located on University Avenue Road used a tear gas canister during the drill and tear gas leaked out at over 8 p.m. local time (13:30 GMT). The people in the surrounding area earlier thought an explosion had occurred.

The embassy apologized for having not informed the police in advance, and promised not to repeat in the future.

"This is the first time, and also is the last time", the local police Chief officer Zaw Win told media outside the embassy later Sunday. They would exercise drills after get the permission from local official departments, added the officer.

Some local media expected a press conference on account of the incident, but when dozens of reporters, photographers and video cameramen got to the embassy on early morning, they found nothing. The announcement came out at 11:04 am local time (0434 GMT).

（APD）