Crowds gather outside Insein Prison

People gather outside Insein prison in anticipation of the promised release of over 6,000 prisoners from prisons across Burma. Burmese state media announced on Tuesday that 6,359 prisoners will be released on Wednesday October 12. Some political prisoners are thought to be amongst that number, but the exact number is unknown at this stage.

A statement read out on MRTV 4 said that those released will be "of old age, suffering poor health and disability, whose moral behaviour has improved after serving an appropriate amount of time".

Burma holds nearly 2,000 MPs, activists, journalists, monks and more behind bars, often in appalling conditions.