Red-Shirts confront security forces in Bangkok’s financial district

BANGKOK - Security forces and Red-Shirt protesters met head on at Bangkok’s Silom Business District following a series of grenade blasts in that area that killed one person and wounded 86 others late on Thursday.

“The tension eased after the red-shirt protesters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) and police agreed in the morning they would each pull back 100 metres from the fortified barricade erected at Sala Daeng intersection,” reports the Bangkok Post.

Earlier on Friday, tension in the area had risen as hundreds of riot police moved right up to the barrier, demanding it be dismantled.

Protesters had climbed onto the barricade, made up mostly of tyres, and poured what appeared to be fuel over it.

Later, an agreement was reached between Red-shirt leader and Rak Udon Group Chairman Kwanchai Praipana, and Metropolitan Police Division 1 Chief Pol Maj-Gen Wichai Sangprapai.

Agreement was reached during tense negotiations between Kwanchai Praipana, a red-shirt leader and chairman of the Rak Udon Group, and Pol Maj-Gen Wichai Sangprapai, the Metropolitan Police Division 1 chief.

The government put the blame on the red-shirt protesters, asserting that the firing was done from their area.

Leaders of the red shirts, who are demanding fresh elections, however, denied they were responsible for the explosions. (ANI)