Thailand extends curfew as troops try to crush hardline protesters in battered Bangkok

By Mail Foreign Service

Clean-up: Firefighters spray water at the huge Center One shopping mall, which was set on fire by anti-government Red Shirt protesters in Bangkok


Buildings smouldered across central Bangkok early today and troops exchanged sporadic fire with pockets of die-hards a day after the army routed anti-government protesters in a push to end Thailand's deadliest political violence in nearly 20 years.

The government quelled most of the violence in the battered Thai capital after a major military operation that killed at least seven people and left 88 wounded.

But underlying political divisions that caused Thailand's crisis may have been exacerbated, and unrest spread to provinces in the north and northeast.


Destroyed: Sections of Thailand's extravagant shopping mall, Central World, collapsed in the fire


Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva imposed a nighttime curfew in the capital and 23 other provinces and said his government would restore calm.

The curfew was extended by three more days.

Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kawekamnerd said the curfew would be in force from 9pm to 5am until Saturday night.

The curfew was imposed yesterday after widespread rioting in central Bangkok following an army crackdown on an anti-government encampment.

Colonel Sansern said today that authorities found a cache of bombs, 'war ammunition' and guns including AK-47 and M-16 automatic rifles in the crackdown.


Violence spreads: A protester burns tyres on the street in the Chiang Mai province in northern Thailand


Police look on: A father and son remove their belongings from the Red Shirt camp in Bangkok after protest leaders surrendered


Although leaders of the Red Shirt demonstrators surrendered, sporadic clashes between troops and remaining protesters continued this morning.

As night fell yesterday, Bangkok's skyline was blotted by flashes of fire and black smoke from more than two dozen buildings set ablaze - including Thailand's stock exchange, main power company, banks, a movie theatre and one of Asia's largest shopping malls.

This morning, troops in the central business district, occupied by protesters for weeks, exchanged occasional fire with holdouts as locals in the area looted a vast tent city the activists had cobbled together.

A special police unit entered a temple inside the former protest site where several hundred Red Shirt supporters, most of them women, old men and children, sought shelter in recent days.

Photographers said there was no resistance at the temple as police took away the group to a nearby police station.


Mangled mess: A Thai soldier inspects Siam Theatre cinema in Bangkok, burnt down by protesters


On the run: Two shopkeepers grab their stock and flee as the shopping mall goes up in flames
Some cried and many were fearful that they would be incarcerated by the military and others remained defiant.


'We won. We won. The Red Shirts will rise again,' shouted one woman.

Since the Red Shirts began their protest in mid-March, at least 75 people - mostly civilians - were killed and nearly 1,800 wounded. Of those, 46 people died in clashes that started on May 13 after the army tried to blockade their one-square-mile camp.

Six bodies were found at the temple, but it was unclear when those people died and whether they already were included in the official death toll as collected by the government's Erawan Emergency Centre.


Gutted: Firermen work long hours to try and extinguish a blaze inside the Central World shopping mall


Elsewhere in the city, municipal workers removed debris and collected piles of garbage left in the streets that had been cordoned off by authorities for the past week.

A spokesman for the Bangkok administration, Thanom Ornketpol, said there had been a total of 35 arson attacks since yesterday, with targets also including office buildings, gold shops, a hotel, government offices and convenience stores.

While many of the rioters were believed to be members of the Red Shirts and their sympathisers, there was also an element of criminals and young hoodlums involved in the mayhem in the city of 10 million people.

The protest and violence in one of Southeast Asia's most stable countries damaged its economy and tourism industry.


source: dailymail