Grenade wounds 46 protesters at Thai PM's office: emergency services

A grenade attack on anti-government protesters who have occupied the Thai prime minister's office in Bangkok for several months wounded at least 46 people early Sunday, emergency services said.

The blast comes amid simmering tensions in the kingdom that have led to a tense stand-off between police and thousands of demonstrators who have occupied Bangkok's main airports.

It happened near a stage set up for rallies in front of Government House, the latest in a string of explosions at the site which was stormed by activists in August, a police official told AFP.

A spokesman for Bangkok's emergency services said 46 people had been injured in the blast, updating an earlier police figure of 11.

Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest movement, said the grenade was launched just after midnight, 300 metres (yards) from the stage in the Government House compound.

"Protesters have returned to their positions, they are not scared," he told local Channel Three television.

He said that the PAD would not allow police to enter the building "because police and PAD do not trust each other."

A spate of grenade attacks on the PAD camp at Government House last week killed two protesters and prompted the group to launch what it calls its "final battle" against the government.

Demonstrators took control of the capital's main international airport, Suvarnabhumi, on Tuesday, while authorities closed the smaller Don Mueang domestic airport on Thursday after a similar takeover.

Don Mueang was where Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat had moved his cabinet offices to after the storming of Government House.

Somchai is now governing from the northern city of Chiang Mai, after his flight home from a foreign summit on Wednesday was diverted because of the protests.

The PAD accuses Somchai's government of being a corrupt puppet for exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006. Thaksin is the current premier's brother-in-law.