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Incident

Nine dead as Thai troops clash with Red Shirt protesters

10 April 2010 19:13 (UTC +04:00)

Thailandâ€™s anti-government demonstrations escalated today, leaving nine people dead, including a journalist.
A series of street battles broke when troops tried to seize back control of the parts of capital being occupied by Red Shirt protesters.
They deployed tear gas and fired rubber bullets into the crowds, who responded by hurling petrol bombs and grenades.
A government official confirmed that four protesters and four soldiers died in the clashes.
A Japanese journalist for the Thomson Reuters news agency was also killed, according to Pichaya Nakwatchara, the director of BMA General Hospital.
Protesters marched the body of a man they said was killed in the fighting back to one of their camps on a stretcher.
Around 486 people, including 64 soldiers and police, were injured.
Thailandâ€™s army had moved in to the section where the demonstrators were camped out in the Phan Fah bridge and Rajdumnoen Road areas of Bangkokâ€™s old quarter, which are near government buildings and the regional UN headquarters, just after dusk.
The troops have now retreated and are urging the protesters to do the same.
Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd made a televised plea in which he said a senior government official would coordinate with the protesters â€œto bring back peace.â€
He also claimed that protesters have been â€œusing real bullets and grenades" during the fighting.
Earlier, troops retook the anti-government satellite TV station, People Channel, after the demonstrators put it back on air.
Hundreds of Red Shirt protesters also forced their way into government offices in two northern cities.
The sudden escalation of the month long demonstration, has raised fears of a larger uprising against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
The demonstrators, who all wear red-shirts, are supporters of the deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and want the Vejjavia to resign.
Protest leader Veera Musikapong told protesters today: â€œWe are changing our demand from dissolving parliament in 15 days to dissolving parliament immediately.â€
â€œAnd we call for Abhisit to leave the country immediately.â€