Series of Blasts hit Thai Capital

[Savonarola]

Breaking news:

Series of blasts hit Thai capital 

Unconfirmed reports said that grenades had been thrown from a sky train above a road [AFP]

A series of explosions have rocked the business district of Bangkok, Thailand's capital.

Five blasts on Thursday in the Silom area were said to have injured at least 45 people, including foreigners, according to authorities and hospital officials.

The blasts were caused by M-79 grenades, according to Panitan Wattanayagorn, an army spokesman.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister, called an emergency meeting of security officials following the blasts.

Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Bangkok, said: "We heard explosions right in a busy tourist and restaurant area.

"We have unconfirmed reports from an undercover policeman that these grenades were thrown from above the road. A sky train is elevated from above the roadway.

"It is believed that these grenades, if that is what they were, were thrown from there.

"Certainly the situation has the potential to get a lot worse."


So-called 'multi-colour' protesters have been holding a demonstration in the area recently, and are camped a few hundred metres from where the blasts took place in a heavily guarded area.

They have been calling for anti-government 'red shirt' demonstrators to end their protest against the government.

The red shirts have been camped out on the streets of Bangkok since March 12, with the stand-off causing widespread disruption, closing shopping malls, hotels and causing millions of dollars in losses for Thailand's vital tourism industry.

The red shirts consist mainly of poor rural workers and pro-democracy activists who opposed the military coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, the then prime minister, in 2006.

They want parliament dissolved immediately and new elections called, saying the current government is illegitimate.

A report in The Nation newspaper on Thursday said red shirt leaders were insisting on an immediate dissolution of parliament and had rejected an appeal by a national economic council to wait until a budget bill was passed in July.

Some leaders of the red shirts had previously suggested they might consider a three-month timeframe for Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and call elections.

The multi-colour protesters have said that they are not alligned to any side but are purely against the red shirts.

[jimmy olsen]

It's probably only going to get worse.

[Jaron]

Will they get all the Sriracha out?