Thousands of protesters occupy streets outside Thai PM's offices

Bangkok: An anti-government group has claimed victory in its effort to topple Thailand's prime minister, with thousands of its supporters pushing past a heavy police cordon to lay siege to his well-guarded offices.

The organisers of Friday's protest, the People's Alliance for Democracy, said the demonstrators would stay and peacefully occupy the streets around Government House until Prime Minister Samak Sunadravej and his Cabinet step down.

The alliance claims Samak's government is a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup.

The demonstrators set up a stage and other facilities on surrounding streets after managing to push through police lines on Friday afternoon to surge forward to a fence on two sides of the Government House compound. After some initial scuffling, police gave little resistance.

"No one got hurt," police spokesman Major General Surapol Tuanthong told Thai television station TPBS. "There was no image of the police hurting Thai people and that's the most important thing and should satisfy our superiors on every level. The politicians will have to find their own political solution."

He was responding to a question about why police let the demonstrators occupy the streets outside Government House despite earlier vowing to block them.

Alliance leaders say they don't want to occupy the compound itself but plan to peacefully maintain a siege around it.

During the afternoon, police estimated about 22,000 people were taking part in the protest, but the number continued to grow in the evening. Alliance leaders gave far higher figures that appeared to be greatly inflated.