Reds And Anti-Reds Clash AT Sala Deang
Pro Government Protestors had grouped around the Saladaeng sky train station on Silom Road beginning Monday night as a response to the Red’s second rally site at the Silom/Rama IV intersection across the road from the station.
The Reds had been threatening to take over Silom business district and the people there (and probably not a few Yellow Shirts) were vowing to stop the Reds. The two groups had been taunting each other since I was there late Monday afternoon.
Finally on Thursday night April 22, tempers boiled over when one of the Silom protestors burned a red handkerchief and all hell broke loose.
Hundreds of police, lined up 30 deep in the intersection between the two groups, had difficulty keeping them separated from each other’s bottles, sling shots and other lethal flying debris. The army was holed up on the sky train flyover.
The clash reached it’s height when five M-79 grenades apparently were launched from behind the Rama VI statue in Lumpini Park, behind the rubber tire and spiked bamboo Red barricade, where many Reds were grouped. The Reds are denying they were responsible. Many people are wondering if it was indeed some rogue Reds or a “Third Hand.”
The first hits took place a little after 8.00pm. Police said three explosions, believed to be M-79 grenades, were fired at the third floor of the the sky train. The explosions sent people waiting at the station running out in panic.
The fourth explosion hit the roof of the sky train station shortly after.
The fifth bomb attack took place in front of Bank of Ayudhya’s Sala Daeng branch near Sala Daeng skytrain about 20.45pm. The blasts killed one woman and injured nearly 80 people, four of them foreigners crazy enough to be there.
Photos again courtesy of Gary Jones, British journalist based in Hong Kong.
Tags: Bangkok, pro-government, Reds, Thailand, Yellow Shirts
Zoe
Leave a Reply