Gunmen kill 1 Thai protester, wound 4 in capital

By: 11 years ago

Anti-government protesters carry their injured protester from a bus to an ambulance after an attack by suspected gunmen while on their way back from a protest in Bangkok, Thailand Tuesday, April 1, 2014. Gunmen have fired on a convoy of anti-government protesters in Thailand’s capital, and four people have been wounded. AP

BANGKOK — Gunmen killed one person and wounded four Tuesday, in another attack on anti-government protesters in Thailand’s long political crisis, authorities said.

The shots were fired in midafternoon at a bus and a flatbed truck carrying demonstrators to their encampment in central Bangkok after they had protested at a complex of government offices just north of the city.

The website for Erawan emergency services said three men and two women were shot and one of the men died at a hospital.

The women were on a bus and the men were guards for the protesters who were on a sound truck, said Nasser Yeemah, who heads the self-described guards for the Student and People’s Network for the Reform of Thailand protest group. He said he suspected the shots were fired from a tall building alongside the expressway where the vehicles were travelling.

The student network is a militant faction of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, which has been seeking to have Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra resign to make way for an interim appointed government to initiate anti-corruption reforms.

Police Maj. Gen. Anucha Romyanan confirmed the circumstances of the shooting and said it was not immediately known what type of weapon was used.

Protest-related violence has left 24 dead and hundreds hurt since November.