Thailand deploys troops to boost protest security
Bangkok (AFP) - Thailand will deploy nearly 3,000 troops to reinforce security in Bangkok, a senior police official said Saturday, with tensions rising as opposition protesters vow a final push in their bid to topple the government.
"From tonight there will be soldiers out to take care of security," national police spokesman Piya Utayo said in a televised address, adding that some 2,730 military personnel from the army, navy and airforce would take part.
The move comes after violence broke out at protests in the Thai capital, with two people suffering gunshot wounds, according to emergency officials.
Defiant demonstrators seeking to unseat the embattled administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra have besieged major state buildings in Bangkok in the biggest street protests since mass rallies in 2010 left dozens dead in a military crackdown.
The protesters -- a mix of royalists, southerners and the urban middle class sometimes numbering in their tens of thousands -- are united by their loathing of ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's older brother.
One student was shot in the thigh and another man was shot in the back, according to an official at the Panya General Hospital where they were taken for treatment.
The circumstances were unclear but the shootings came after a mob of opposition protesters attacked government supporters travelling to a rival rally at a Bangkok sports stadium in a show of support for Yingluck.
