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Protesters swarm Thai airport, takeoffs suspended

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-26 00:02

BANGKOK-- Anti-government demonstrators swarmed Bangkok's international airport late Tuesday - halting departing flights - as opponents and supporters of Thailand's government fought running battles in the streets of the city.

Anti-government demonstrators gather outside Thai Armed Forces Command Headquarters on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008. [Agencies]

Minutes after outbound flights at Suvarnabhumi International Airport were suspended, hundreds of demonstrators - some masked and armed with metal rods - broke through police lines and spilled into the passenger terminal.

Airport manager Serirat Prasutanon said airport authorities tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the protesters.

"For the safety for passengers, we have to stop flights out of the airport temporarily until the situation returns to normal," he said in a statement. He said incoming flights were operating and that the provincial governor asked the army to help police.

Travelers seemed bewildered.

"This is the first time I have seen anything like this. I am glad that it did not turn out violent," said Daniel Garmona, a tourist from North Carolina who was waiting for a flight back to the US.

Using trucks and cars, demonstrators blocked highway access to the airport, the transportation hub for millions of tourists who visit the country each year.

The airport siege followed a clash earlier in the evening between opponents and supporters of Thailand's government.

Members of the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy were returning from a rally at the smaller Don Muang airport, when government supporters threw rocks at their truck.

Alliance members responded by firing slingshots and a half-dozen shots with two pistols from their truck, according to footage shown on Thai PBS television.

The footage showed the alliance supporters surrounding a motorcycle taxi driver and holding a knife to his throat. After the driver fled, the protesters battered several motorbikes with steel rods and set fire to another one.

The clash was the second time in recent months that the two sides have fought and marks the first major violence since Oct. 7, when street battles with police and anti-government forces left two people dead and hundreds wounded.

In a Sept. 2 clash between the two sides, a government supporter was beaten to death, while two alliance members were killed last week in grenade attacks.

Political tensions that have been simmering since 2006, when a similar protest campaign against then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra led to him being deposed by a military coup.

Tensions heated up further with the current effort to force Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat to step down. The protesters accuse him of acting as a proxy for Thaksin, his brother-in-law.