At least 30 people were killed, including patients, after an airstrike by the country's ruling junta hit a hospital in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, according to a rebel group, an aid worker and a witness, Reuters reports.

More than 70 people were injured, they said.

The hospital in Rakhine's Mrauk U township was struck late on Wednesday by bombs dropped by a military aircraft, said Khine Thu Kha, a spokesman for the Arakan Army, which is battling the ruling junta along parts of the coastal state.

"The Mrauk U General Hospital was completely destroyed," Khine Thu Kha told Reuters. "The high number of casualties occurred because the hospital took a direct hit."

Myanmar has been gripped by conflict since the military suppressed protests against a 2021 coup that unseated the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.