Hospital says man shot and killed in violence tied to Thai street protests

Man shot and killed in Bangkok street protests

BANGKOK — A doctor says a 33-year-old man has been shot and killed in violence tied to ongoing street protests in the Thai capital.

Suwinai Busarakamwong of Kluay Namthai Hospital in Bangkok says the man was brought to the hospital Friday with a gunshot wound to the chest.

It is the first death reported in Friday’s violence and the second in less than 24 hours. Street clashes overnight killed one Red Shirt protester. At least another 12 people have been wounded, including a Thai photographer and a foreign journalist.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai troops fired bullets and tear gas at anti-government protesters rioting near the U.S. and Japanese embassies Friday as an army push to clear the streets sparked bloody clashes and turned central Bangkok into a virtual war zone.

Violence escalated after a rogue army general regarded as a military advisor to the Red Shirt protesters was shot in the head on Thursday evening, possibly by a sniper, leaving him in a critical condition. Ensuing street clashes have killed one Red Shirt and wounded 12 other people, including a Thai photographer and a foreign journalist.

With security deteriorating and hopes of a peaceful resolution to the two-month standoff fading, unrest plunged Thailand deeper into political uncertainty, threatening the country’s stability, economy and already-decimated tourism industry.

Friday’s violence was centered on a small area home to several foreign embassies. Soldiers crouched behind a raised road divider and fired rubber bullets, live ammunition and tear gas shells. Army vehicles were seen speeding on deserted streets littered with stones and debris. Protesters retreated and hurled rocks and insults.

Fighting has now killed 30 people and injured hundreds since the Red Shirts, mostly rural poor, began camping in the capital on March 12, in a bid to force out Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. They claim his coalition government came to power illegitimately through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military, which in 2006 forced the populist premier favored by the Red Shirts, Thaksin Shinawatra, from office in a coup.

Last week, Abhisit offered November elections, raising hopes that a compromise could be reached with the Red Shirts, who have been demanding immediate elections. Those hopes were dashed after Red Shirt leaders made more demands.

Late Thursday, the army moved to seal off the Red Shirt barricaded encampment which covers 1-square-mile (3-square-kilometer) in an upscale commercial district of the capital. Some 10,000 protesters, women and children among them, have crammed into the area.

“We are being surrounded. We are being crushed. The soldiers are closing in on us. This is not a civil war yet, but it’s very, very cruel,” Weng Tojirakarn, a protest leader, told The Associated Press.

On Friday morning, protesters captured and vandalized two military water cannon trucks at a key intersection in the business district, just outside the Red Shirt encampment, which is fortified with bamboo stakes and tires. They ripped the cannon from its moorings and used its plastic barrel to shoot firecrackers from behind a sandbag bunker they had commandeered from soldiers.

They later set fire to tires and a police bus that sent thick plumes of smoke into the sky. Soldiers fired automatic rifles repeatedly.

A Thai photographer was shot in the leg, his newspaper, Matichon, said. A hospital said a foreign journalist was being treated in the emergency ward but did not reveal the identity.

The violence was concentrated on a small area around the Red Shirt encampment, close to the American and Japanese embassies, which were closed to the public. The British, New Zealand and the Dutch embassies, which are in the vicinity, also were shut.

Many shops in the city were closed and traffic was light.

“I’m not scared. We are here only to ask for democracy. Why are we facing violence?” Mukda Saelim, 39, a mushroom farmer from Chonburi province, said inside the Red Shirt encampment. “I don’t have anything to fight them, but I’m not afraid. You asked if this is safe? It’s not.”

Tensions escalated after renegade army Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdiphol, who is accused of creating a paramilitary force for the Red Shirts, was shot in the head Thursday evening at the Saladeng intersection. He was talking to reporters just inside the perimeter of the protesters’ encampment when the bullet hit him.

He was taken to a hospital in a coma and was in critical condition. Hospital director Dr. Chaiwan Charoenchokthawee said Khattiya “could die at any moment.”

It was not known who shot Khattiya, better known by the nickname Seh Daeng. But the Red Shirts blamed a government sniper.

“This is illegal use of force ordered by Abhisit Vejjajiva,” said Arisman Pongruengrong, a Red Shirt leader. “Seh Daeng was shot by a government sniper. This is clearly a use of war weapons on the people.”

The army denied it tried to kill Khattiya.

“It has nothing to do with the military. It has never been our policy (to assassinate). We have been avoiding violence,” said Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd, an army spokesman. Only a forensic investigation will determine who was behind the shooting, he said.

The two-day clashes marked the worst continuous episode of violence since April 10, when 25 people were killed and more than 800 injured in clashes between Red Shirts and troops in Bangkok’s historic area. Four more people were killed in subsequent clashes.

The Red Shirts see Abhisit’s government as serving an elite insensitive to the plight of most Thais. The protesters include many supporters of former prime minister Thaksin whose allies won elections in 2007 after his ouster. Two subsequent pro-Thaksin governments were disbanded by court rulings and Abhisit was named prime minister in a vote by lawmakers.

Thaksin, a former telecommunications billionaire who fled overseas to avoid a corruption conviction, has publicly encouraged the protests and is widely believed to be helping bankroll them. He claims to be a victim of political persecution.

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Associated Press writers Vijay Joshi and Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report.