Bangkok: Downtown Bangkok turned into a flaming battleground Wednesday as an army assault toppled the Red Shirt protest leadership.
Six people were killed and 58 injured after the Thai army launched a crackdown on an anti-government protest site in the heart of Bangkok, emergency services said.
Among the dead was an Italian journalist who was shot during clashes that erupted after armoured vehicles backed by armed troops firing live rounds smashed through barricades erected around the protesters' sprawling base.
At least 100 people were rescued from a Thai TV station's offices after the Bangkok building was set ablaze by enraged anti-government protesters, the city's fire rescue service said
Huge fires swept through major buildings in central Bangkok on Wednesday as looting and arson gripped the Thai capital after a deadly army crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Army troops with automatic weapons, shotguns and tear gas rifles moved in force on at least one tyre barracade in the Rama Four district of downtown.
Audio: Mick O'Reilly describes the situation in Thailand
The red shirts responded with a hail of rocks, Molotov cocktails and some lit their tyre barracks alight, sending up a dense black smoke in an attempt to thwart the mlitary's capacity to shoot.
Several bursts of automatic fire and some shotgun rounds were heard.
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Map: Mick O'Reilly in Bangkok
The goverment is insisting that the Red Shirts--who are against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva--leave their encampments in the downtown core of Bangkok.
On Tuesday, Thai senate lawmakers appeared to have brokered a negotiated end to the crisis, which has been escalating since March, claiming scores of lives and injuring hundreds more.
Our man in Bangkok, Mick O’Reilly, is still holding strong... He reports about the events as they happen... (reports filed in local Thailand time, which is three hours ahead of UAE time)
Curfew comes into force in Bangkok
8pm
A night curfew has come into force in Bangkok, the first declared in the Thai capital since 1992.
After a bloody day of military action against anti-government supporters on Tuesday, a quiet calm descended over this city of 10 million as a government-enforce blanket curfew was imposed at 8pm local time.
The 8 pm to 6 am curfew was enforced following an army assault on the anti-government protesters. At least six people have been killed and nearly 60 injured in clashes.
The last such curfew was declared in 1992, when the army killed dozens of pro-democracy demonstrators seeking the ouster of a military-backed government.
Rama Four Road is a battle zone
6pm
Still facing pockets of protest. Curfew from 8pm tonight. Thai TV stations have just broadcast a statement from the government warning that operations to secure areas of Bangkok will continue overnight. They are advising all interested in peace and security to allow the police and security forces to carry on with their operations. They say the operation has been successful. They also say that some protest leaders have escaped from the area.
4pm (wire update)
Four Thai anti-government protest leaders surrendered to police on Wednesday after troops stormed their encampment in Bangkok, but violence was reported in other parts of the capital and in at least two northeastern provinces.
Several buildings were on fire, including the stock exchange.
The army spokesman said in a television broadcast the protest site was under army control and the military had halted operations.
At least four people died after troops moved in early in the day.
Even as the leaders were surrendering, three grenades exploded outside the main protest site, badly wounding two soldiers and a foreign journalist, a witness said.
2:06 pm
I stand to talk to a press coleague from Holland. We foolishly leave ourselves exposed to the army shiper. We are shouted at to move. We do. Pretty damn quickly too.
2:03 pm
At the other end of the street. Three wounded on the street. Building on right under constructiom and protesters firing from a fortified position there.
2pm
Moved to behind a fence. Motorbikes leaving. Catching my breath behind a white minivan.
1:59 pm
More shots. I am going to make a dash for it, keeping head down, staying to the right. Coughing from the tear gas drifting down street.
1:58 pm
Automatic fire at the end of the street. Covering behind a wall. I'm shaking.
1:56 pm
Fire still burning. I hear rumble of vehicles, shooting, automatic fire. Loudspeaker still blaring. Chopper right over my head.
1:52 pm
Loudspeaker getting louder. Shots ring out from end of alley. Army is coming.
1:46 pm
The atmosphere is changing. Shooting. Louder booms getting closer. Automatic fire incoming, occasional round going out.
1:41 pm
People seem to be leaving. Another thud as a canister of tear gas is fired. Gunshots are breaking out again.
1:33 pm
Timing is everything. I still get routine emails from Dubai as I sit here, one now from a job applicant in Britain. Sorry, I"ll deal with it if I get out of here in one piece.
1:27 pm
I have just been told that the protest leaders were to surrender at 1pm. All I can say is that I am with scores of protestors down a side alley, and the violence and shootings continue sporadically around me.
1:24 pm
The man with the sling is still firing the occasional stone over the wall in the direction of the army.
1:17 pm
I am 100 metres from Rama Road IV in an alley. Occasional shots are exchanged over my head.
12:53 pm
Chopper overhead. More shots.
12:46 pm
Large crack of gun sends us lower - loudest and nearest yet.
12:33 pm
Not safe. More sniper shots, tear gas down Rama.
12:26 pm
Man runs. With family, to shoot to safety down alley. More automatic fire.
12:24 pm
Middle aged man with a sling beside me stands and fires a stone towards the sniper. More shots. He ducks. Safe.
12:23 pm
Explosions down the end of street on Rama Four Road.
12:20 pm
More sniper shots, building above me is hit, 10 yards away.
12:18 pm
There is a military sniper in the 11th floor of building above and to my left. He is firing towards us. I am behind an 8 foot wall. Two more shots.
12:15 pm
More bursts of fire near me. Tear gas canisters incoming. Shots fired from the end of the street. Back at the alley with burning building. We are keeping cover.
12:12 pm
Automatic fire rages over my head. Moving back to alley. My position is at the corner of Soi Goethe Street and Rama Four.
12:11 pm
More shots, automatic fire. I cower behind a wall.
12:10 pm
Gunshots. Coming from near me on my right.
12:07 pm
Police checkpoint. Frisked, passport checked.
12:05 am (Wire update)
A second townhall in Thailand’s northeast was set ablaze on Wednesday after the military took control of a red shirt encampment in central Bangkok and forced its leaders to surrender. The town hall was set afire in Khon Keon, a stronghold of anti-government protesters who are mostly loyal to ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
12:05 pm
Moving through alleys closer to army lines. Have two good video clips from right at the barricade.
12:02 pm
I have covered riots and civil unrest on Belfast Falls Road in the mid 1980s. This is different, same smoke and burning buildings, but there is a feeling here that the army will move in and there will be loss of life.
12pm
Two plain clothes police officers question and check my credentials. Smoke and mists of water fill the humid air. Moving back down alley. Several protester have brought some petrol bombs near to where I am standing. Retreat a discreet distance.
11:58 am
Bang. I duck. A protester beside me laughs. It's a tyre exploding.
11:55 am
Smoke fills the street and it's hard to get a breath of air. Unattended and leaking fire hoses spray though this street. I am nervous and my fingers are finding it hard to type.
11:51 am
I am going to risk looking up and down the no man's land on Rama Four, a six land divided street littered with the debris of violence.
11:50 am
Shotgun blasts heard at the alley end. A two storey building there is burning.
11:48 am
An army helicopter clatters over the side alley I am taking cover in.
11:28 am
As I write this, dense black acrid smoke fills the air and occasional gunshots ring out, sending us all ducking for cover. The army has moved down the road in force, pushing aside barricades. This reporter saw two young people rushed away by the Green Cross. Side buildings burn while the fire brigade waits helplessly, not able to douse flames.
11:23 am (Wire update)
Seven leaders of Thailand’s Red Shirt protesters have surrendered to authorities after a deadly army assault on their fortified encampment. They have been led away by police in central Bangkok. Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd described them as “terrorist leaders” and said that the “overall situation is under control now”.
However, grenades exploded on Wednesday nearby as the Red Shirts announced their decision.
The leaders told followers they are ending their sit-in to prevent more deaths. An army assault on their heavily barricaded protest encampment in central Bangkok killed at two protesters and an Italian photographer. Shortly afterward, angry protesters tried to set fire to a high-end shopping mall.
10:45 am (Web update)
Blogs and websites report that three foreign correspondents have been shot by the army. One of the correspondents has died.
According to The Times website, an Italian journalist was shot in the stomach while Michel Maas, a Dutch journalist who has written for the London-based newspaper, was shot in the shoulder.
The third journalist, a Westerner in his late 40s, was shot in the leg.
