Cutting locks and breaking doors in the dead of night -- guards for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy watched helplessly via remote CCTV as security forces broke into its Yangon headquarters.

They sounded the alarm on Facebook late Tuesday, announcing that "the military dictator had raided and destroyed" the NLD's premises.

The move comes over a week after its leader was deposed in a coup, returning Myanmar to military rule after a brief 10-year dalliance with democracy.

The party has been left rudderless -- with the detention of Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and top NLD executives, its fate is now in the hands of lower-ranking MPs and members.

"We wanted to go to the headquarters immediately, but because of the curfew, we knew there might be problems," Soe Win, an NLD member in charge of the Yangon headquarters, told AFP Wednesday.

"We had to wait until morning."

After a city-wide nighttime curfew ended at 4 am, party members rushed to the headquarters in Shwegondine Township to assess the damage, arriving just before dawn.

"There were no keys and our main door was left opened... we found all the locks on our doors destroyed," Soe Win said.

In their server room, the central processing unit was gone, as were printers and scanners, while the cable server wires were cut and left in a tangled mess.

Before the CCTV server cable was severed, the headquarters' security guard could see military and police officers, as well as people in civilian clothing, searching through their tables and drawers.

"The safe box is gone," Soe Win said sadly, as he showed a large grey safe that had been left open.

"There were some cash and bank cheques and bank books... I don't know the exact amount in there."

Also missing -- a guest list that visitors sign when they visit the Yangon headquarters.

© AFP