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Thai protests turn violent

Tension boils as opposition deadline on toppling govt looms

Reuters, Bangkok
Gunshots were fired and an anti-government crowd attacked motorcyclists and vehicles near a stadium rally by supporters of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday, as tensions boiled over amid attempts to topple her from power.
Several people were wounded when shots were fired as chaos erupted in Bangkok's Ramkamhaeng area, where protesters armed with sticks attacked a bus and taxi and badly beat two people, police and Reuters witnesses said.
The US embassy in Bangkok expressed concern about the rising political tension. It was unclear who had fired the shots and how many people were injured, Adul Saengsingkaew, national police commissioner-general, told Reuters.
With a Sunday deadline set by demonstrators for the ousting of the government, police called for military backup to protect parliament and Yingluck's office, Government House, where protesters tore down stone and razor wire barriers ahead of a planned move to occupy it.
Demonstrators have started to up the ante and briefly occupied the headquarters of the army on Friday, urging it to join them in a complex power struggle centred on the enduring political influence of Yingluck's billionaire brother, ousted prime ministerThaksin Shinawatra.
Those attacked by the crowd were accused of being "red shirts", ardently loyal supporters of
Yingluck and Thaksin, who gathered in their thousands at the Rajamangala stadium to ward of any coup attempt against the government.
The tension heightens a nearly decade-long conflict that broadly pits Thailand's traditional establishment of top generals, royalists and the urban middle class against the mostly rural, northern supporters ofThaksin.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told supporters late on Friday to surround the headquarters of the national and city police, along with Government House and even a zoo today.
Yingluck's son was harassed by parents of other children at his school on Friday, according to Thai media. In an emotional plea, she urged them to leave her son alone." I beg, if you have children you'll understand the heart of a mother," she said during a televised news conference. "If you're angry, please make it all about me."
A crowd of about 2,000 people massed outside state-owned telecoms companies yesterday and Suthep has urged his followers to move on the ministries of labour, foreign affairs, education and interior. It remains unclear whether he has the numbers to besiege multiple government offices.
The protests are the biggest since red-shirted Thaksin supporters paralysed Bangkok in April-May 2010 in a period of unrest that ended with a military' crackdown in which 91 people, mostly Thaksin supporters, were killed.