Chaos resulted from clashes between anti-government protesters and police continued Tuesday afternoon in central Bangkok as tear gas was again fired, leading to more injuries.
Some MPs were still blocked by protesters from leaving the Thai Parliament after a cut-short government policy address.
|
|
An anti-government demonstrator runs away from riot police after they fired tear gas at protesters blocking Parliament in Bangkok October 7, 2008. Thai police fired tear gas Tuesday morning at protesters organized by People's Alliance for Democracy(PAD) who had gathered since Monday evening to stage a besiege around the Parliament in central Bangkok. Some 70 were injured. [Xinhua/Reuters Photo]
|
Police shot tear gas again around 4:00 p.m. (09OO GMT) trying to disperse protesters in front of the Parliament compound, which the protesters have besieged since Monday evening.
Many people suffered injuries from the tear gas, trampling and shoving out of panic, a Xinhua correspondent reported at the scene.
Anti-riot police have been dispatched to the scene, with gasgroof masks. Ambulances are rushing to the spot, too.
Thousands of protesters organized by the anti-government movement People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) besieged the Parliament and Metropolitan Police Bureau compound continued demonstrations on Tuesday morning in an attempt to block the scheduled session.
Somchai Wongsawat, the Prime Minister and Defence Minister, began delivering the policy address before the Parliament at a two- chamber joint session after President of Parliament Chai Chidchob announced the session to kick off at around 10:45 a.m. 0345 GMT
The Prime Minister read quickly through the address which ended at 1:00 p.m. 0600 GMT to cut short the process as electricity inside the Parliament was cut off earlier by the Electricity Generation Authorities of Thailand, whose labor union was in collaboration with PAD in their protest against the government, and the meeting has to rely on make-shift power generators to carry on.
