Thousands of villagers have fled their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state after a local administrator warned dozens of village leaders that the army planned "clearance operations” against insurgents, a lawmaker and a humanitarian group said.

But a government spokesman said late on Saturday an evacuation order issued by border-affairs officials had been revoked. Border affairs acknowledged issuing the order through the local administrator but said it affected fewer villages.

The warning to the village leaders came in a letter written on Wednesday, which was seen by Reuters and verified by a state government minister, Col. Min Than.