Thousands of red-shirted protesters, who for weeks had besieged the prime minister's office in Bangkok, ended their protest on Tuesday [EPA]
Published On 16 Apr 200916 Apr 2009
As dawn broke, the military advanced on the government complex, using armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles to block off access points [AFP]
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The anti-government protest leaders called off the massive demonstrations and handed themselves over to the police, saying they wished to avoid casualties [AFP]
The demonstrator's withdrawal came a day after they had clashed with the military, setting fire to buses and torching a government ministry with petrol bombs [GALLO/GETTY]
The demonstrators had barricaded major road intersections in the city, which security forces cleared with repeated charges, firing shots in the air [EPA]
Bangkok became a scene of chaos, with black smoke billowing over the city of 12 million people after protesters set fire to buses to block advancing troops [GALLO/GETTY]
The so-called Red Shirts are mainly supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted prime minister who still wields huge influence among the poor, especially in rural Thailand [Reuters]
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The protesters want Abhisit to quit and call new elections, saying he came to power through an undemocratic parliamentary vote following a court ruling that drove Thaksin's allies out of office [AFP]
The crisis broadly pits royalists, the military and the urban middle-class against the rural poor loyal to Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and lives in exile to avoid jail on a corruption conviction [GALLO/GETTY]
The protests prompted several countries to advise their citizens not to travel to Thailand, which depends heavily on tourism [Reuters]
The turmoil comes as Thailand's economy heads towards recession, hit by the twin effects of domestic political turmoil and the global financial crisis [EPA]
