The Huế Phật Đản shootings were the deaths of nine unarmed Buddhist civilians on 8 May 1963, in the city of Huế, South Vietnam, at the hands of the army and security forces of the pro-Catholic government of Ngô Đình Diệm. The army and police fired guns and launched grenades into a crowd of Buddhists who had been protesting against a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on the day of Phật Đản, which commemorates the birth of Gautama Buddha. Diệm's denial of governmental responsibility for the incident – he instead blamed the Việt Cộng — added to discontent among the Buddhist majority.