SITTWE, Myanmar - With residents cowering indoors, security forces patrolling a tense city in western Myanmar collected bodies Monday from homes burned to ashes in some of the country’s deadliest sectarian bloodshed in years.

The conflict along ethnic and religious lines has left at least seven people dead and hundreds of homes torched since Friday and poses one of the biggest tests yet for Myanmar’s new government as it tries to institute democratic change after generations of military rule.