Thai protests again turn violent
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Thai security forces have fired live rounds after moving to seal a heavily defended demonstrators' camp in Bangkok amid clashes that left two people dead, BBC reports.
Embassies were closed as protesters set fire to a police bus and shot fireworks at troops, who also responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Our correspondent says the area is like a war zone, with troops firing into a park as a helicopter circled overhead.
The demonstrators want the prime minister to resign and call elections.
Many of the so-called red-shirt protesters support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
The Bangkok authorities have cut off water and electricity to the camp in a renewed effort by the Thai government to reclaim the city centre.
Violence escalated after a renegade general who was backing the protest was shot by an unknown gunman on Thursday, leaving him in a critical condition.
The British embassy was among several foreign missions closed on Friday.
One person has been killed and a demonstrator was shot dead on Thursday night.
A France 24 TV reporter was hit by a round, and there were reports two Thai journalists had also been shot.
Residents fled as gunfire rang out when thousands of soldiers moved in to seal off access to the protesters' camp.
The troops advanced on hundreds of demonstrators who had set up a checkpoint outside the Suan Lum night market, popular with tourists, to stop soldiers approaching their main base.
A government spokesman, Panitan Wattanayagorn, told the BBC's World Today the security forces were not trying to storm the barricades.
"We want to cut down a number of activities including the logistics, sending in the fuel and gasoline trucks," he said.
Thousands of protesters, including women and children, have reinforced their bamboo barricades and vowed to maintain their sprawling camp in a commercial district of Bangkok.
"They are tightening a noose on us but we will fight to the end, brothers and sisters," one protest leader, Nattawut Saikua, told a cheering crowd, reports news agency Reuters.
Guards were seen at the sprawling protest site armed with slingshots and arrows.
The authorities have also begun to cut public transport and some mobile phone services to the area occupied by the protesters, most of whom are rural poor.
With their own supplies of water and food, the demonstrators appear braced for a long siege, says our correspondent.
Embassies were closed as protesters set fire to a police bus and shot fireworks at troops, who also responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Our correspondent says the area is like a war zone, with troops firing into a park as a helicopter circled overhead.
The demonstrators want the prime minister to resign and call elections.
Many of the so-called red-shirt protesters support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
The Bangkok authorities have cut off water and electricity to the camp in a renewed effort by the Thai government to reclaim the city centre.
Violence escalated after a renegade general who was backing the protest was shot by an unknown gunman on Thursday, leaving him in a critical condition.
The British embassy was among several foreign missions closed on Friday.
One person has been killed and a demonstrator was shot dead on Thursday night.
A France 24 TV reporter was hit by a round, and there were reports two Thai journalists had also been shot.
Residents fled as gunfire rang out when thousands of soldiers moved in to seal off access to the protesters' camp.
The troops advanced on hundreds of demonstrators who had set up a checkpoint outside the Suan Lum night market, popular with tourists, to stop soldiers approaching their main base.
A government spokesman, Panitan Wattanayagorn, told the BBC's World Today the security forces were not trying to storm the barricades.
"We want to cut down a number of activities including the logistics, sending in the fuel and gasoline trucks," he said.
Thousands of protesters, including women and children, have reinforced their bamboo barricades and vowed to maintain their sprawling camp in a commercial district of Bangkok.
"They are tightening a noose on us but we will fight to the end, brothers and sisters," one protest leader, Nattawut Saikua, told a cheering crowd, reports news agency Reuters.
Guards were seen at the sprawling protest site armed with slingshots and arrows.
The authorities have also begun to cut public transport and some mobile phone services to the area occupied by the protesters, most of whom are rural poor.
With their own supplies of water and food, the demonstrators appear braced for a long siege, says our correspondent.