Explosions wounded almost 30 people in central Bangkok on Sunday during a continuing “shutdown” protest aimed at ousting the Thai government, an emergency centre said.
Twenty-eight people were taken to several hospitals across the city, according to the Erawan Emergency Centre. Protesters said the injuries were caused by two separate blasts at a rally.
Anti-government protesters marched boldly through Thailand’s capital on Saturday, with one group entering a police compound, undeterred by Friday’s grenade explosion that wounded 35 demonstrators and killed one.
The turmoil is the latest episode in an eight-year conflict pitting Bangkok’s middle class and royalist establishment against poorer, mainly rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, the self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The protesters accuse the pair of corruption, and want Yingluck to step down to make way for an unelected “people’s council” to push through broad political reforms.
Strong support from rural voters has enabled Thaksin or his allies to win every election since 2001 and Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party seems certain to win the vote set for February 2. But the protesters and opposition parties are boycotting the poll and want the prime minister to step down immediately.
