Thai Troops Deployed Against Bangkok Protesters

Thai troops were deployed on the streets of Bangkok today after ongoing battles between riot police and anti-government protesters in which two people were killed and nearly 400 were injured.

One man was killed by a car bomb and a woman died as the People's Alliance for Democracy intensified its four-month campaign to unseat a government they say is the illegitimate puppet of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The army chief, Anupong Paochinda, denied rumors of a coup, two years after the military removed Thaksin in a bloodless putsch.

"People should not panic. Soldiers will not launch a coup since it will not be good for the country," he told reporters.

The clashes began shortly after dawn when police used tear gas to force a path through 5,000 PAD members who tried to block entry to parliament's opening session. They aimed to disrupt the first policy speech to parliament by Thailand's new prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat.

The protesters blocked all four entrances to the parliament building, locking MPs and ministers inside and cutting off their water and electricity supply with the help of sympathetic state utility workers.

At one point a sewage lorry tipped its load outside the building, according to Reuters.

Somchai opened the parliamentary session after a 90-minute delay but as he spoke unrest spread outside.

By the end of the day, 381 people had been injured, 48 seriously, after the worst street violence since the army and pro-democracy activists fought in 1992.

Two policemen were shot and another stabbed during the unrest, which occurred mainly in Bangkok's administrative zone and did not spill over into tourist areas.

The deputy prime minister, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the government's chief negotiator with the PAD, resigned, saying police had failed to exercise the restraint he had requested.

"Since this action did not achieve what I planned, I want to show my responsibility for this operation," he said.

The PAD, an extra-parliamentary group of businessmen, academics and activists, pulled back to the government house compound it has occupied since August. But youths continued to taunt police, who randomly fired stun grenades at the jeering crowd.

Bangkok's deputy policy chief, Umnuey Nimmanno, defended the use of teargas and denied any other weapon had been used. "It is conventional practice in dispersing a crowd. We did not use disproportionate force," he said.

An army spokesman, Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd, said the military was "concerned" about the violence against unarmed protesters and that any serious injuries should be investigated.