Human shield: A tiny child looks down at protesters from a perch high on the barricade of tyres and bamboo protecting them from a hail of bullets fired by government troopsRenegade 'Commander Red' dies five days after he was shot by a sniper
The tiny head, covered in dark baby hair, sticks above the barricade of tyres and bamboo sticks that is protecting anti-government protesters from a hail of bullets.
This is the moment that Red Shirt protesters appeared to use a toddler as a human shield in Bangkok - a horrifying image of the insanity gripping the country.
The image is taken from a YouTube video that claimed to have been filmed during the so-called Battle of Bon Kai in Bangkok.
The child, who seems to be clutching a bottle, appears to have been used as a human shield by the protesters during the fighting in BangkokThe video has since been removed from YouTube.
Thailand is on the brink of civil war today as anti-government protesters stood firm against the army in the worst violence the country has seen in decades.
At least 37 have been killed and hundreds injured over the past three days in the capital after police and soldiers moved in.
Calls for United Nations mediation talks were rebuffed by the government, which called on the protest leaders to surrender.
On the edge: Anti-government protesters fire home-made rockets at Thai soldiers in Bangkok yesterday behind a barricade similar to the one the child in the images above appeared to be at
Thai soldiers take up position behind barricades of sandbags as the fighting continued yesterday
Street clashes: Around 30 have been killed and hundreds injured over the past three days in Bangkok after police and soldiers moved in'We will move forward. We cannot retreat now because we are doing things that will benefit the entire country,' prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva insisted in a televised statement.
But Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan warned: 'The situation right now is getting closer to civil war every minute.
'We have to fight on. The leaders shouldn't think about retreat when our brothers are ready to fight on.' Fractures within the protest leadership were evident however as another leader, Nattawut Saikua, insisted: 'We are willing to negotiate immediately. What's urgent is to stop the deaths. Political demands can wait.'
The political conflict is Thailand's deadliest and most prolonged in decades, and each passing day of violence deepens divides in the nation of 65million.
Thailand is a hugely popular destination for British tourists, a key Western ally and Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.
It has long been considered a democratic oasis in Southeast Asia, and the unrest has shaken faith in its ability to restore and maintain stability.
Tensions are expected to rise further with news that a rogue Thai general who helped anti-government protesters died today.
Major General Khattiya Sawasdiphol was shot in the head by a sniper five days ago during a face-to-face interview with a New York Times reporter in Bangkok.
Protesters paid tribute to the Major General, also known as Seh Daeng (meaning Commander Red) and vowed to continue their demonstrations, which are demanding the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the dissolution of Parliament and new elections.
"Seh Daeng has accomplished his duty. All of us here have the duty to carry on the quest for justice," said Prompan.
He said that the only hope now to end the violence was intervention by Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The 82-year-old monarch, hospitalized since September, has remained publicly silent on the crisis unlike decades past when he stepped in to stop bloodshed.
Today the Thai government warned protesters barricaded within their 'occupation zone' in the heart of the capital to leave by 3 pm, saying anyone who remains there will be violating the law and will face two years in prison.
Continued violence: A protester runs from a burning-tyre barricade in Bangkok. Clashes have killed around 30 people since Thursday, and the government is desperate to end the two-month deadlock
Taking cover: A boy cowers behind a cement traffic poll as shots ring out today. Protesters have accused army snipers of shooting to kill as they try to put an end to the protest
National address: Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced the Bangkok curfew on nationwide TV, and said Red Cross workers would attempt to remove women, children and the elderly from the conflict zone Around 5,000 protesters have occupied the one-mile protest zone in the Ratchaprasong commercial district - one of the ritziest areas of Bangkok - since mid-March and are running low on food and water.
They barricaded themselves in with tyres and bamboo spikes.
Soldiers have encircled the core protest site and cut off utilities to the area.
Protest leaders told women and children with them to move to a Buddhist temple compound within the zone.
The areas between the site and the military's perimeter have become a no-man's land where gunshots and blasts can regularly be heard. But some of the worst clashes Sunday were behind the military cordon - an indication the unrest was not contained within the protest area and was spreading.
'Immediately vacate the area that is considered dangerous,' the government said in a televised announcement. 'Terrorists are trying to cause deaths in the area.'
The announcement said buses will be provided to escort protesters out of their encampment and take them home.
As fighting raged in two areas of Bangkok, residents began hoarding food while hundreds more were trapped in their homes.
Yesterday a towering column of black smoke rose over the city as protesters set fire to tyres on a barricade.
Elsewhere they also torched a police traffic post as sporadic gunfire rang out.
The protesters, known as Red Shirts, have used petrol bombs, fireworks, rocks and catapults to attack troops sheltering behind sandbag bunkers.
The soldiers have responded with rubber bullets and live ammunition.
According to government figures, 66 people have died and more than 1,600 have been wounded since the Red Shirts began their protests in March.
The toll includes 37 killed, most of them civilians, and 266 wounded since Thursday in fighting that has turned parts of central Bangkok into a battleground.
Grief: Red Shirt anti-government protesters break down in tears as they hear news of Major General Khattiya Sawasdiphol's death
Street scene: Smoke rises from burning tires in BangkokThere were also reports of sporadic unrest outside the capital, with a military bus set on fire in the northern city of Chiang Mai.
The government has declared a state of emergency in more than 20 provinces across the country as fighting showed signs of spreading to the north and northeast.
British couple holiday in Bangkok 'kill zone' unaware of violence... after hotel HIDES newspapersA British couple were trapped in the Bangkok 'live fire zone' happily unaware of the violence outside because their hotel hid the news sections of the newspapers and turned off the internet.
Gary Wilson, 29, and Urszula Wojciechowski, 39, arrived at their Bangkok hotel at 6pm last Thursday, just as the first shots and bombs went off.
Unaware: Gary Wilson and Urszula Wojciechowski were oblivious to the violence outside because their hotel hid the news sections of the newspapers and turned off the internetThey heard loud bangs, but nobody said anything, so they assumed it was just a monsoon storm and went out for a drink.
A tuk-tuk driver took them to a nearby club called 'Boss', and they said they were curious as to why the club was empty.
'The following morning we went to read the Bangkok newspapers but the hotel staff had removed all the news sections,' said Miss Wojciechowski.
'In our room we had seen nothing on television because there was only Fox TV. But Fox seemed more interested in Paris Hilton than the situation in Bangkok.'
Around 30 people have been killed and hundreds injured over the past three days in Bangkok after police and soldiers moved in an attempt to clear protesters.
Officials last night defended the military crackdown as the death toll rose during increasingly violent clashes with anti-government protesters.
The couple from Loughborough had booked into the Baiyoke Boutique hotel in Rajaprarop, slap bang in the centre of a 'live fire zone' between the army lines and protesters.
A wrong turn outside the hotel could have meant the difference between life and death.
'As we did not have newspapers and did not understand any Thai we didn't understand just how bad it was around here,' said Mr Wilson.
'We wanted to eat authentic Thai food and so stupidly we got a taxi to take us to any Thai restaurant. We sat there on our own all night.
'On the way home we saw soldiers again. They were shouting at the driver to stop and pointing their guns. We were very scared.
'We started wandering around some alleyways when we found a German sitting in a little cafe [who] explained that we had to cross the 'kill zone' to get back to our hotel.'
Miss Wojciechowski added: 'I've never been so scared. We walked with our hands in the air praying we wouldn't be shot. My heart was pounding.'
The couple are flying home tomorrow.
A mass exodus of British tourists has already left Bangkok in the wake of the bloody anti-government demonstrations.
But over the weekend many travellers remained in the city, confused by the situation.
The Foreign Office has advised travellers to avoid Bangkok if at all possible and said they should take 'extreme caution' if they do travel.
The British Embassy in Bangkok has been caught up in the street clashes and was closed over much of the weekend.
The Foreign Office advised British travellers: 'If you are already in Thailand, you should consider whether it is essential for you to travel to Bangkok.
'Wherever possible, you should take transport services which do not involve transiting areas of Bangkok where political protests are taking place.'
source:dailymail