Thai troops advance on protest site, fire breaks out

BANGKOK - Hundreds of Thai troops, backed by armoured personnel carriers and water trucks, advanced on the southern section of an anti-government protest site Wednesday in the heart of Bangkok, prompting reprisals in other parts of the capital.

The troops, deployed at the intersection of Rama IV and Silom roads, used water hoses to try to break down barricades of rubber tyres and bamboo sticks set up weeks ago by red-shirted protestors who have occupied the Ratchaprasong district since April 3, Spring New TV reported.

Tear gas was fired into the area, which has been largely abandoned by the protestors since Thursday, when the government launched its offensive to clear the protestors from Ratchaprasong Road, an upmarket shopping and hotel district in central Bangkok.

Shortly after the deployment of troops at Rama IV, protestors reportedly set fire to the Anti-Narcotics Bureau office at Din Daeng Road, north of Rathaprasong, where bloody street battles raged over the weekend.

An explosion was also heard in the government office, Spring New reported.

The red shirts, officially called the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), have been demanding that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve parliament and hold new elections.

Their nine-week protest has led to fierce street fighting that has paralyzed central Bangkok and claimed up to 66 dead and more than 1,400 injured.