Heavy Fighting Breaks Out Anew in Bangkok

Heavy Fighting Breaks Out Anew in Bangkok Heavy fighting and explosions were reported in one area of Bangkok early on Monday in the deadliest and most prolonged conflict in Thailand in many years.

Some residents were trapped in their homes, and guests took refuge in the basement of the five-star Dusit Thani hotel. “We didn’t know where bombs and bullets were going to come from,” said a television reporter who was trapped inside the hotel.

More gunshots could be heard in mid-morning and helicopters circled above the site of the fighting. There was no sign of an end to the violence.

As four days of wild street fighting spread to new areas, the British Embassy said on its Web site, “You should be aware that acts of violence or sabotage might be staged outside red shirt protest areas.” It added: “A threat has been made by the red shirts to set off explosions in department stores in Bangkok.”

The red-shirt protesters, who are demanding that the government resign and hold a new election, have taken over the core of Bangkok’s commercial district for six weeks. The official death toll since Thursday rose to 35, with 244 injuries reported, the Erawan emergency center said.

The renegade general Khattiya Sawatdithol, who had sided with the protesters and whose shooting Thursday night was a trigger for the current violence, was also reported dead Monday by Thai news media.

That brings to at least 60 the number of people killed since the protests began as an expression of grievance from Thailand’s poor majority over the country’s long-established hierarchical system in which a mostly urban elite holds power.

The latest casualties included the first death of a soldier Embroidered Fabricin the last four days of violence. The emergency center said he died of a bullet wound near the Dusit Thani.