Armed men stopped traffic on a highway in Shan state late Tuesday, robbing drivers and setting fire to their vehicles amid a new surge of fighting between the national military and soldiers of the Northern Alliance of ethnic armed groups, RFA reported.

Among seven vehicles destroyed in the attack on the Kutkai-Muse highway were cargo trucks and a passenger bus, while from four to five other cars were seen leaving the scene in flames, sources told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

Others whose cars were burned also managed to escape, sources said, with one driver named Thaung Nyein saying he had first been allowed to pass a checkpoint set up by unidentified troops.

Soldiers demanded their phones, car keys, and money, threatening to kill them all if they found anyone hiding phones, he said, adding that they were able to drive away only after extinguishing a fire that had been set to one of the cars.