Two people were crushed outside a passport office in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Monday amid a rush to leave the country as the junta introduced conscription for the ongoing civil war.

Thousands of residents have been battling to reach the relative safety of neighbouring Thailand since February 2021 when the army ousted democratically elected leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Last week the military announced a compulsory draft for at least 60,000 men as resources have dwindled amid ongoing resistance from civilian and rebel groups across the country - sparking a frenzy at the Thai Embassy, seen in the video.

Two women aged 52 and 39 were killed when hundreds of people surged to get in line at the passport office in Mandalay.

'There was a ditch near the crowd and they fell into the ditch and died from a lack of oxygen,' a rescue worker told local media.

Under the law, men aged 18 to 35 and women 18 to 27 can be drafted into the armed forces for two years. A higher age limit of 45 for men and 35 for women applies in certain professional categories such as medical doctors and engineers, and their term of service is three years.

Myanmar, or Burma, was once a treasured part of the British Empire from 1824 to 1948, next to the jewel in the crown, India.

Rudyard Kipling's poem Mandalay proudly proclaimed 'Come you back you British soldier', such was the affection for its diplomatic presence.

However, the country has struggled to progress following independence.