Smoke billows from burning tires. Bangkok’s biggest streets, normally clogged by traffic, are empty and guarded by troops backed by razorwire. Troops fire on anti-government protesters, playing cat and mouse.
A cacophony of ambulance sirens, gunshots and thunderous explosions echo down streets lined with office towers, malls and hotels, as troops scramble for cover behind concrete pillars.
Welcome to Bangkok, a tourist hot spot known for its cultural attractions, racy nightclubs and — now — scenes of anarchy more reminiscent of an apocalyptic Hollywood movie.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Thousands of armed troops struggled to throw a security cordon around Bangkok’s commercial center yesterday, battling protesters armed with petrol bombs, rocks and, according to the government, possibly guns and grenades.
Authorities put up banners in parts of the business district warning people they were entering a “live fire zone.”
Medical rescue workers scurried into the streets to evacuate the wounded and the dead, recorded by television and photojournalists. One medical rescue worker was shot and feared dead. At least three journalists were among the 161 wounded since Thursday night in the mayhem that has killed 17.
The violence showed no sign of abating.
“It’s pretty frightening what’s going on. I’m surprised the lengths both sides are willing to go,” said Frederick Dierckxsens, a Belgian businessman who lives in central Bangkok. “It’s gone on far too long and it’s getting worse.”
Thousands of red-shirted demonstrators, many of them women and children, rallied defiantly in their encampment fortified with walls of tires and bamboo poles topped with razor wires. They seemed unperturbed over the possibility troops could invade the bastion they have occupied the past six weeks.
“Let them come,” said one Red Shirt named Piahist, brandishing a bamboo spear.
‘HAPPY YOU’RE LEAVING’
Power and cellphone signals were intermittent in parts of the city. Near-empty hotels once eager to lure wealthy guests were now trying to keep them away.
“I’m so happy you’re leaving,” the general manager of the Metropolitan Hotel told one guest checking out after troops and soldiers faced off the night before on the street outside. “We’ve been e-mailing anyone who has booked rooms here telling them not to come.”
In a televised address on Friday, Thailand’s government spokesman said the situation would return to normal “in a few days,” but residents were not as confident.
“My ears are ringing with all the shooting last night,” said Ratana Veerasawat, a grocery store owner north of the protest site. “It’s just awful and getting worse. Best to leave now.”
People forced to walk home at night in the urban war zone hear soldiers screaming and firing warning shots at protesters, punctuated by the occasional blast of grenades, which the military says some Red Shirts are throwing.
In a message from New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to both sides to “do all within their power to avoid further violence and loss of life.”
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