Twenty-eight people were wounded, seven seriously, in explosions on Sunday at a camp of anti-government protesters in Bangkok, the latest violence in a prolonged political crisis dividing the country and threatening the Thai economy.
The explosion comes a day after the military urged both sides to settle their differences in the more than two-month long dispute, in which protesters are trying to bring down the elected government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
‘There were 28 people injured from the blast at the Victory Monument,’ Suphan Srithamma, director general of the Bangkok Emergency Medical Centre, told reporters. ‘Among these 7 people were seriously injured.’ Witnesses said they heard two explosions.
‘The first blast I heard was from behind the stage,’ said Teerawut Utakaprechanun, who told Reuters Television he had been turning out for the protests every day.
‘People were looking around. I saw the security guards running after a suspect. After one minute I heard another bomb blast.’
On Friday night, one man was killed and 35 protesters were wounded in a grenade explosion in the capital. That takes to nine the death toll since the protests started in November.
They form the latest episode in an eight-year conflict pitting Bangkok’s middle class and royalist establishment against poorer, mainly rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, the self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The protesters accuse Thaksin of nepotism and corruption, and aim to eradicate the political influence of his family by altering electoral arrangements, though in ways they have not spelt out, along with other political reforms.
A ceremony for the dead man was being held at a Buddhist temple in Bangkok on Sunday, where hundreds of people had gathered. It is expected to be attended by the firebrand leader of the government protests, Suthep Thaugsuban.
The explosion comes a day after the military urged both sides to settle their differences in the more than two-month long dispute, in which protesters are trying to bring down the elected government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
‘There were 28 people injured from the blast at the Victory Monument,’ Suphan Srithamma, director general of the Bangkok Emergency Medical Centre, told reporters. ‘Among these 7 people were seriously injured.’ Witnesses said they heard two explosions.
‘The first blast I heard was from behind the stage,’ said Teerawut Utakaprechanun, who told Reuters Television he had been turning out for the protests every day.
‘People were looking around. I saw the security guards running after a suspect. After one minute I heard another bomb blast.’
On Friday night, one man was killed and 35 protesters were wounded in a grenade explosion in the capital. That takes to nine the death toll since the protests started in November.
They form the latest episode in an eight-year conflict pitting Bangkok’s middle class and royalist establishment against poorer, mainly rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, the self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The protesters accuse Thaksin of nepotism and corruption, and aim to eradicate the political influence of his family by altering electoral arrangements, though in ways they have not spelt out, along with other political reforms.
A ceremony for the dead man was being held at a Buddhist temple in Bangkok on Sunday, where hundreds of people had gathered. It is expected to be attended by the firebrand leader of the government protests, Suthep Thaugsuban.