Naypyitaw, Feb 6 (UNI) Myanmar's military rulers on Saturday announced that they were shutting down the internet across the country as thousands of people came out to join the rally against the Monday's coup.

The military has imposed a near-total internet blackout in the country leading to a fall in connectivity which has fallen to 16% of ordinary levels, according to the monitoring group NetBlocks Internet Observatory.

The internet shutdown followed soon after the military had blocked access to social media sites Twitter and Instagram to stop people from mobilising for protests. Facebook had been banned a day earlier.

But many users evaded the restrictions on social media by using virtual private networks (VPNs) but the more general blackout severely disrupted that.

Civil society organisations urged internet providers and mobile networks to challenge the blackout order. Human rights group Amnesty International called the shutdown "heinous and reckless".

In the city of, Yangon, crowds of people came out to join the protest and chanted "Military dictator, fail, fail; Democracy, win, win", a BBC report said.

Police were seen with riot shields and have blocked all the main roads leading into the city centre.

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