Bomb blast raises tensions in Bangkok

An attack on antigovernment protesters in Bangkok on Friday, most likely with a grenade, killed one person and injured more than 30, intensifying tensions in the city as anti-government protesters pledged to stage a fresh march through the Thai capital Saturday.

A dwindling but dedicated core of protesters continued to block access to a number of government buildings and major intersections calling Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down from office and aiming to derail February 2 elections.

A 46-year-old protester who died from his wounds from the explosion became the ninth person killed during the latest demonstrations, which have also seen scores injured in several outbreaks of unrest.

The anti-government movement said rally leader Suthep Thaugsuban would lead another procession on Saturday, despite being nearby when the explosion tore through their march as they neared a busy intersection in the shopping district of the city on Friday afternoon.

"Suthep will lead the march but our security will be tighter. We will have an advance team to check around the route before the main entourage marches through," spokesman Akanat Promphan told AFP.

The capital's Erawan emergency centre said the blast left one dead and 37 injured, with 11 remaining in hospital.

An official from the centre said the injured protester died of his wounds early Saturday.

"He died from severe loss of blood after suffering shrapnel wounds to his major internal organs," he told AFP.

The explosion occurred in broad daylight in central Bangkok as the protesters were marching down a street, leaving people dazed and bleeding. It remained unclear hours after the attack who was responsible, with the protesters blaming the government but refusing to allow a forensics team to investigate the site fully because, they said, they do not trust the police.

“The use of a war weapon is of particular concern,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher in Thailand at Human Rights Watch. “Thailand cannot allow this cycle to spin into something more dangerous.”

The episode was not the bloodiest during the protests — eight people have been killed, and about 500 have been injured, in the past two months — but it was among the most brash, occurring not far from the city’s main shopping district.

Thailand has been periodically rocked by bouts of bloody unrest since just before a 2006 military coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra -- Yingluck's older brother -- who now lives in self exile abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption.

The current wave of protesters are a coalition of Thaksin's foes among the Bangkok middle class, southerners and the royalist elite.

They want to rid the kingdom of the influence of the billionaire former leader and are calling for an unelected "people's council" to push through vaguely defined reforms before an election in a year or more.

Demonstrators have occupied major intersections in the capital since Monday in what they have dubbed the "Bangkok shutdown".

The protests were triggered by a failed amnesty bill that could have allowed Thaksin to return without going to jail.

The billionaire telecoms tycoon-turned-politician is accused of controlling his sister's government from his base in Dubai.

He has strong electoral support in northern Thailand, which has helped him and his allies to win every election in Thailand this century.

Yingluck called the snap February poll in an attempt to deflate the political crisis, but the main opposition Democrat Party is boycotting the polls, fearing they would again lose to the Shinawatra family.

Government supporters fear the protest violence is aimed at provoking another military coup, although the army has so far seemed reluctant to pursue this option.

Thailand has seen 18 actual or attempted coups since 1932, while the judiciary has also stepped in to strip pro-Thaksin governments of power in the past.

Yingluck is also facing several legal moves which experts say could potentially bring down her government.

On Thursday the National Anti-Corruption Commission launched an investigation into possible negligence of duty by Yingluck in connection with a controversial subsidy scheme for rice farmers.