Thailand protests erupt in violent clashes with police

About 30,000 protesters have swarmed on government buildings in violent protests in Thailand’s capital Bangkok, forcing the prime minister to flee to a police compound.

After several days of fairly peaceful protests, yesterday demonstrators took control of a state broadcaster and hurled stones and petrol bombs at riot police, who fired back with teargas.

Three people were killed and at least 58 wounded after chaotic gun and knife clashes throughout Saturday night.

Protesters pulled at barb-wire barricades, breached police lines and seized seven police vans in skirmishes. The government has urged the 10 million people in Bangkok to stay indoors at night, from 10 pm to 5 am.

Thousands of people gathered in protests last week, and police spokesman Piya Utayo said troops would forcibly remove protesters who have occupied a government complexes for several days.

The protests are the latest development in a conflict between Bangkok’s middle class and royalist elite against rural supporters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her billionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s former prime minister who was ousted in a military coup in 2006. Protester believe Yingluck may be acting as a proxy for her brother.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has urged government workers to go on strike on Monday and called on all television stations to stop broadcasting state news. Suthep was a deputy prime minister in the government defeated by Yingluck’s party in 2011, and told supporters they had occupied 12 state agencies.

Yingluck has called for talks with the protesters, but Suthep has so far ignored her.

Thailand faces its worst political crisis since the unrest in 2010, which ended with a military crackdown the death of 91 people: mostly supporters of Thaksin supporters trying to overthrow the then-Democrat government.