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BANGKOK : A grenade attack on protesters occupying the Thai premier's office wounded at least 46 people Sunday, further raising tensions as police tried to end an opposition blockade of Bangkok's airports.
The explosion came hours after royalist, anti-government demonstrators forced police to abandon a checkpoint at the main Suvarnabhumi airport on the fifth day of a siege that has left thousands of tourists stranded.
Police have so far held off launching an assault on the protesters occupying both airports and Government House amid fears of a repeat of political violence that left two people dead last month.
In the latest violence, unknown attackers lobbed a grenade near a stage set up for rallies at Government House, the latest in a string of explosions at the site which was stormed by activists in August, a police official told AFP.
A Bangkok emergency services spokesman said 46 people were wounded in the blast. Some appeared to be critically hurt but the numbers were not immediately clear, the spokesman said.
"Protesters have returned to their positions, they are not scared," Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest movement, told local Channel Three television.
A recent spate of grenade attacks on Government House killed two protesters and prompted the group to launch what it calls its "final battle" against the government.
Demonstrators took control of Suvarnabhumi on Tuesday and the smaller Don Mueang domestic airport on Wednesday.
Don Mueang was where Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat had moved his cabinet offices to after the seizure of Government House three months ago.
Somchai is now governing from the northern city of Chiang Mai, after his flight home from a foreign summit on Wednesday was diverted because of the protests.
The PAD accuses Somchai's government of being a corrupt puppet for exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006. Thaksin is the current premier's brother-in-law.
On Saturday, police were forced by angry demonstrators to abandon five trucks near a checkpoint, which were left with their tyres deflated, and then surrendered another security post at the airport.
Later 2,000 police were deployed to set up four more checkpoints on the road to Suvarnabhumi, airport security commander Major General Rarshane Reunkomol told AFP. Some carried M16 rifles and pistols.
"The government is still in the process of negotiations and I have asked my men not to use force whatever happens. The gunfire will not be heard from police," Rarshane told AFP.
The PAD, a loose coalition with the backing of elements in the military, the palace and the urban middle classes, says it will not leave the airports or Government House until Somchai's administration quits.
A Thai pro-government group has vowed to hold a rally in Bangkok on Sunday, raising further fears of clashes.
Somchai on Friday dismissed the national police chief for failing to take on the protesters, whose actions have cost Thailand billions of dollars and badly hit its tourist industry.
Rumours of a coup swept the country after Somchai rejected calls from the army chief to call snap elections, but General Anupong Paojinda said military action would not solve the rifts in Thai society.
Analysts said the protagonists in the crisis may wait to act until the birthday at the end of the coming week of Thailand's widely revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, when he traditionally gives a national address.
Frustrated tourists meanwhile struggled to escape Thailand through a Vietnam War-era naval base as airport authorities announced Suvarnabhumi would remain closed for at least two more days.
"We were originally told we were booked on a flight but they are re-selling people tickets," English tourist Mark Underwood, 23, told AFP at the one-runway U-Tapao naval base about 190 kilometres (118 miles) southeast of Bangkok.
"We have no money. I am annoyed and we want to get home."
- AFP /ls
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