Protester is shot dead as chaos engulfs Thailand

AN anti-government demonstrator was shot dead in Thailand today as violent protests edged the country closer towards civil war.

A gun gang, described as pro-government supporters, dragged the man, who was in his fifties and whose son ran an anti-government radio station, from his car in the northern city of Chiang Mai and shot him, police said.

In Bangkok, anti-government protesters seized control of the country's main airport, Suvarnabhumi. Thousands of holidaymakers, including scores of Britons, were stranded. The lucky ones were evacuated to Bangkok city and all flights were cancelled, effectively sealing Thailand off from the rest of the world.

Earlier grenades were thrown at anti-government supporters, members of the People's Alliance for Democracy, as they marched on the airport, an apparent retaliation for a shooting. Last night 11 government supporters were injured after being fired on. Thailand is now almost irrevocably split between supporters of the government and the PAD. Hundreds of PAD supporters, some wearing masks and armed with metal rods and baseball bats, stormed past police and into the airport overnight, taking control of the passenger lounges and the control tower.

The PAD said it will keep the airport closed until prime minister Somchai Wongsawat resigns.

Mr Somchai returned to Thailand today but was forced to land at a military airport in the north of the country. Thailand's influential army commander demanded the protesters leave the airport and called on the government to hold an election soon but the protesters vowed to stay put. The government insisted there would be no new election.

The comments by General Anupong Paochinda were interpreted as open support for the PAD, which is seeking to topple Mr Somchai. But a government spokesman said today: "The prime minister has said many times that he will not quit or dissolve parliament because he has been democratically elected. That still stands."

One pro-government supporter said if Mr Somchai was forced to stand down, it would be regarded as a coup and prompt a wave of anti-military protests. "There will be war for sure," warned one senior member of a pro-government protest group.

"We will stay until the government steps down. This government is not legitimate," said one of the anti-government protesters, Sunthorn Kaewlai, a retired university lecturer.

The insurrection left an estimated 4,000 tourists stranded. Zoe Barnes, 37, a telecoms worker from Wandsworth, speaking from the airport, said today: "This is a real pain. I've been told I have to turn around while I can otherwise I could get stuck on the road. I'll head back to the hotel and hope they can put me up for tonight."

Don Lancaster, 63, from Clitheroe in Lancashire, who was stranded at the airport, said: "It's all very friendly at the moment, we're being fed by the PAD people and they've given us hand clappers as presents. But it's not going to last this way. Toilet facilities are worsening and the restaurants are running out of food."

Exhausted travellers tried to sleep on suitcases, on luggage carts, on security conveyer belts and behind empty check-in counters.

The last 20 British tourists to fly out of Bangkok today told of their relief at arriving at Heathrow safely. Honeymooning couple Nick and Holly Harrold described scenes of pandemonium without any help from police or airport staff when they became caught up in the turmoil.

Mr Harrold, 32, a civil servant from Grays, Essex, said: "All we were told was that everything was closing down and that we should leave the airport I saw about 500 protesters in yellow T-shirts outside. They were shouting and screaming and some carried knives and batons."

The airport's director Serirat Prasutanont said: "The incident has damaged Thailand's reputation and its economy beyond repair."

The PAD took over the prime minister's office in late August and twice blockaded parliament, once causing street battles with police that left two dead and hundreds injured.

Support for the alliance has been waning, and the group appears to want bigger confrontations in the hope of creating chaos. Thitinan Pongsidhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said: "Now they are openly creating instability and provoking a military coup."