Bangkok clashes: Death toll climbs to 21, 800 injured

Defiant "Red Shirt" Thai protesters vowed Sunday to keep up their bid to topple the government, after the country's worst political violence in almost two decades left 21 dead and over 800 injured.

Protest leaders, who have promised to maintain their campaign until the government dissolves parliament and calls fresh elections, demanded Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down and leave the country.

Seventeen civilians, including a Japanese TV cameraman, and four soldiers were killed in Saturday's crackdown on the red-shirted supporters of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok, the emergency services told AFP .

On Sunday evening Reds gathered to mourn the loss of their comrades at the city's Democracy Monument - the scene of a fierce battle on Saturday - where grieving relatives led a procession holding up gold-framed pictures of the dead.

They were followed by crying men carrying caskets, a couple containing bodies draped with Thai flags and flowers.

The violence erupted when troops tried to clear one of two sites in central Bangkok occupied by the protesters for the past month. Soldiers fired in the air and used tear gas, and the Reds responded by hurling rocks.

As the clashes intensified gunshots echoed around the city and both sides accused the other of using live ammunition. Emergency services said two protesters were killed by gunshot wounds to the head.

At once stage protesters overwhelmed and captured an armoured personnel carrier. They had also hauled the dead bodies of two protesters draped in Thai flags onto their rally stage in the old city.

The army later retreated, calling for a truce with the demonstrators, who were holding five soldiers hostage.

Thousands of protestors remained on the streets at the two protest sites on Sunday.

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said an investigation had been launched into the violence and that negotiations were under way to bring about a resolution to the stand-off without further unrest.

"The prime minister's secretary is coordinating with protest leaders to solve the situation and would like protesters to stay put," he said.

The Thomson Reuters news agency said one its journalists, Japanese TV cameraman Hiro Muramoto, died after being shot in the chest during the protests.

Muramoto, 43, had worked for Thomson Reuters in Tokyo for more than 15 years and had arrived in Bangkok on Thursday to cover the protests.

"I am dreadfully saddened to have lost our colleague Hiro Muramoto in the Bangkok clashes," said David Schlesinger, Reuters editor-in-chief.

"Journalism can be a terribly dangerous profession as those who try to tell the world the story thrust themselves in the centre of the action." 

It was the country's worst political violence since 1992 and the United States urged both sides to show restraint.

Tens of thousands also remained in Bangkok's main shopping district, a stretch of upscale department stores and five-star hotels held for a week by the mostly rural and working-class Red Shirts who say they have been marginalised in a country with one of Asia's widest disparities between rich and poor.

The also say the government is illegitimate as it came to power with military backing in 2008 after a court ousted Thaksin's allies from power.

King urged to intervene 

The Reds called on the country's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej to intervene to prevent further bloodshed.

"Did anybody inform the king that his children were killed in the middle of the road without justice?" Reds' leader Jatuporn Prompan asked protesters. "Is there anyone close to him who told him of the gunfights?"

Although he has no official political role, the hospitalised king is seen as a unifying figure. And during a 1992 uprising he chastised both the military and protest leaders, effectively bringing the violence to an end.

The world's longest-reigning monarch, revered as a demi-god by many Thais, he has been in hospital since September.

Riot shields and pools of blood were left scattered around the city's historic area near the Khaosan Road backpacker district, while ambulances ferried away casualties and injured soldiers were loaded onto pick-up trucks.

"It's frightening. We heard explosions and people were running all around," said Sharon Aradbasson, a 34-year-old Israeli tourist.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva ( right ) offered his condolences over the deaths but refused to bow to the protesters' calls to resign.

"I and my government will continue to work to resolve the situation," he said in a televised address to the nation.

Abhisit invoked emergency rule Wednesday after the Reds stormed parliament, prompting lawmakers to flee. The embattled premier has insisted he will not cede to the Reds' demand and call elections.

Tens of thousands of police and soldiers were mobilised to try to restore order, provoking an angry response from the red-clad movement.

Arrest warrants have been issued for many of the senior leaders, but so far none is reported to have been taken into custody.

The protests have also spread to the northern city of Chiang Mai, where hundreds of Red Shirts massed outside a provincial hall chanting anti-government slogans.

In a series of blasts around the city, a grenade exploded near Abhisit's office in Government House. The premier remained holed up at an army barracks.

An afternoon offensive ended in a standoff with many wounded. After dark, troops opened fire again with rubber bullets about 500 metres away at an intersection leading to Khao San Road. Some fired live rounds. Helicopters dropped tear gas.

The Red Shirts used taxis and pick-up trucks to barricade themselves in that area, and expanded their control to include several more blocks.

Hundreds of riot police who massed at one end retreated after being surrounding by red shirts.

First year anniversary of 2009 protests

The violence comes exactly a year after about 10,000 of the supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra brought traffic in Bangkok to a standstill for several days, occupyingmajor intersections.

In those protests, Red Shirts hijacked petrol tankers, torched dozens of public buses and hurled petrol bombs at troops until the army imposed order.

Two people were killed and 123 wounded.

The latest protests, however, involved more than five times as many protesters spread across several areas of the city. 

Thousands more demonstrators were also refusing to leave another rally site in the main commercial district of the Thai capital, demanding Abhisit dissolve parliament.

It was the latest chapter in years of political turmoil in Thailand pitting Bangkok's ruling elite against the mainly working class Reds.

The country has been riven by political tensions since a bloodless coup ousted premier Thaksin in 2006.

- Agencies