Thai security forces clash with protestors

Thai security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at anti-government demonstrators today during a crackdown in the capital, Bangkok.

More than 150 people were reported to have been injured, including some with gunshot wounds, as the military failed to keep a pledge to clear protesters’ main encampments by nightfall.

Thai media reported both sides firing guns and the use of small bombs during a pitched battle near the protesters’ camp.

Video footage showed chaotic scenes of fighting in the streets, with Thai TV stations reporting that a helicopter had dropped tear gas on demonstrators at another location.

Some 161 people have been injured, most sustaining cuts and bruises or irritation related to tear gas, the government’s Erawan emergency centre said.

There were reports that several people sustained gunshot wounds. The army said any live rounds were fired only into the air, but confirmed that two soldiers had been shot.

Tear gas was used frequently by the soldiers, who also fired rubber bullets at the protesters and discharged M16 assault rifles into the air. A reporter for Thai TV station TPBS showed a spent bullet and bullet hole in the side of a car.

The so-called Red Shirt protesters are demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolves Parliament and calls new elections. They claim that he came to power illegitimately in December 2008 with the help of military pressure on Parliament.

Government forces have confronted the protesters before but pulled back rather than risk bloodshed.