Thai troops move against pockets of resistance

Bangkok: Residents of this city of 10 million emerged from a night of curfew to a city of burned buildings, charred streets and broken dreams.

Twitter updates on the crisis

The Thai government ordered a blanket curfew Wednesday night which ended Thursday at 6am local time (3am in Dubai)

Buildings are smoldering across central Bangkok and troops are exchanging sporadic fire with pockets of holdouts a day after the army routed anti-government protesters.


Audio: Mick O'Reilly reports from Thailand

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

Shooting was going on in areas near downtown on thursday. This reporter saw two people getting arrested; both has Red Shirt items in their cars. Any Red supporters are arrested immediately. There's a complete news blackout.

Military forces used the curfew to continue mopping up red shirt resistance after a day of bloody clashes between the two sides which left at least four confirmed dead and hundreds more injured.

A heavy police and military cordon of razor wire and checkpoints rings the central downtown core.

Every one entering the zone had their identification check and their vehicles searched.

Video: Bangkok's front line

The red shirt encampment had brought the heart of Bangkok to a standstill since March as thousands of mostly rural and poor urban Thais demanded the resignation of the Thai government.

Thursday morning, minutes after curfew lifted, the area was abandoned, tyre barricades pushed aside, makeshift shelters crushed and meals left unfinished as the protesters fled the military's assault, which began at dawn on Wednesday.

It will take this city months to recover from the physical damage this, the worst outbreak of political violence in the kingdom's history, inflicted.