THAILAND: Grenade blasts rock Bangkok's business district, killing at least one person and wounding 75

Record ID: 359345

  • Title: THAILAND: Grenade blasts rock Bangkok's business district, killing at least one person and wounding 75
  • Date: 23rd April 2010
  • Summary: BANGKOK, THAILAND (APRIL 22, 2010) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) PEOPLE RUNNING ON SILOM STREET INJURED PEOPLE ON GROUND / MAN CARRYING INJURED PEOPLE VARIOUS OF INJURED PEOPLE ON PICK-UP TRUCK INJURED WOMAN BEING CARRIED OUT OF BOMB SITE PRO-GOVERNMENT SUPPORTERS RUNNING ON STREET INJURED WOMAN BEING CARRIED OUT OF BOMB SITE INJURED MAN BEING CARRIED OUT OF BOMB SITE IN
  • Embargoed: 8th May 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Thailand
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ZY3H1G16CSKR3717LC45XHUV
  • Story Text: A series of grenade blasts that rocked Bangkok's business district on Thursday (April 22) killed at least one person and wounded 75, hospitals and the Thai media said.
    Five explosions hit the area packed with heavily armed troops and studded with banks, office towers and hotels, seriously wounding at least four people, including one foreigner, according to witnesses, hospital officials and an army spokesman.
    Hundreds of troops, many armed with M-16 assault rifles, have poured into the area since Monday (April 19) to stop anti-government protesters who have formed a barricade at an intersection leading into the bustling district also known for racy go-go bars.
    The blasts were caused by M-79 grenades, Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd told Reuters. The same type of grenade -- fired with a shoulder-mounted launcher -- hit troops during a bloody clash with protesters that killed 25 people on April 10.
    One explosion hit outside the headquarters of Charoen Pokphand Group, Thailand's biggest agribusiness group. Another landed near the Dusit Thani Hotel.
    Nearly a dozen ambulances streamed into the area. Many were wounded by shrapnels.
    Many of injured people were there to protest against the red-shirted protesters as counter-protesters demanded the red-shirts to stop their rallies in Bangkok.
    Not far from the explosions, tens of thousands of red-shirted supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra have fortified their encampment site in a Bangkok commercial district with home-made barricades, expecting the army to evict them any time.
    The red-shirts vowed to prolong their protests to demand the government to dissolve the parliament and call snap elections After the blasts, troops blocked off roads with razor wire and trained their guns in the air looking to rooftops and an overhead railway system.
    Neither side shows any sign of backing down, after the army's chaotic attempt to evict protesters from another site on April 10 that led to the deaths of 25 people and wounded more than 800.
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