Thais clash in anti-government rally, 13 wounded

Fri, Jul 25 12:31 AM

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thirteen people were wounded when supporters of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej clashed with anti-government protesters in rural Thailand on Thursday, police said, as protests moved off city streets into the countryside.

About 700 government supporters armed with wooden planks, axes and slingshots broke through a police blockade to clash with 150 unarmed anti-government demonstrators in the city of Udon Thani, 650 km northeast of Bangkok, television footage showed. Two of the wounded were in critical condition, police said. Most of the wounded were from the anti-government group, they said. No arrests had been made yet.

"I have been informed that 13 people were injured in the clash, but no one was killed as reported by some media outlets," national police spokesman Surapol Thuanthong said. The clash was the most serious yet as government supporters in the provinces, led by local politicians from the ruling parties, react with violence to anti-government rallies that are moving out of Bangkok into the provinces. The People's Alliance for Democracy -- a loose grouping of businessmen, academics and royalists whose rallies led to a coup against then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 -- has waged a two-month street campaign against the Samak government.

They accuse Samak and the pro-Thaksin coalition government of wanting to turn Thailand into a republic, a charge it denies.

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