Bangkok's Silom district threatened by grenades attacks

Breaking news: Friday morning, hundreds of riot police moved in front of a barricade erected by "red shirt" protesters in Bangkok's Silom business district early on Friday and told them to dismantle it, television said. Television pictures then showed some protesters pouring what a TV reporter said was fuel onto the barricade, which is made up largely of tyres, with sharpened bamboo poles inserted. I killed in clashes.

In the latest violence in Bangkok, Thursday night, five grenades were fired from M-79 launchers at BTS Saladaeng station and nearby areas last night from unknown launch sites killing three people among them an elder woman and wounding more than 70, including a foreign tourist from Australia. Following demonstration of pro-government protesters who waved national flags to show their opposition to the red shirts and a House dissolution by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Images report of the Bangkok Post http://bit.ly/9Dhyw0

The spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd, of the Centre for the Resolution of Emergency Situations, confirmed that all five grenades were fired from M-79 launchers and said in an interview with Thai PBS that the first three rounds landed on the BTS Skytrain station, the fourth on the sky-walk under the station, and the fifth in front of the Bank of Ayudhya branch. He said dispersal of the red shirts during night time was not possible.

Sansern said the grenades were not fired from high positions but possibly from Lumpini Park or from a red-shirt stage close to the Saladaeng intersection. He added that soldiers were not holding their rifles in high positions but were standing on guard and trying to locate the launch sites. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called an emergency meeting of security officials. Citing intelligence reports, Abhisit said in the evening before the attacks that the armed men in black, who had blended in with the red shirts during the April 10 violent clashes, were now dressed in white, and that it was not easy to separate women and children among the demonstrators in case crowd dispersal was needed.

At around 9.40pm, repeated loud bangs were heard among red shirts prompting a hurray from Silom residents. It turned out later that the red shirts had lit firecrackers to celebrate the attacks on the Silom residents. The Nation writes.

Over 60.000 thousand troops are now dispatched in the critical areas of the capital Bangkok. Observers say that law will be restored by force after the red-shirts rejected talks with the Abhisit government.

Foreign embassies called upon their nationals to refrain from visiting the financial and governmental districts of the capital. Citizens of France are advised to consult the Ministry of Foreign Affairs updated page www.diplomatie.gouv.fr

Sources: Reporter's noted, The Bangkok Post, The Nation, MAEF