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| Southeast Asia |
| Bangkok hotel attacked |
| 2010-05-17 |
| [Straits Times] THE five-star Dusit Thani, a luxury hotel facing a protest site in Bangkok came under gunfire early Monday and a loud blast was heard, prompting guests to shelter in the basement, according to an AFP journalist inside. 'I was in bed. There was a big explosion very close to my room. I went out of the room, other people did too and at that moment the wall outside was hit by bullets,' said AFP photographer Pedro Ugarte. 'We received a few phone calls (from hotel staff) and they said, 'Come down, you are under attack'. Everybody is now in the basement, about 100 people,' he said by telephone from the Dusit Thani hotel where the incident occurred. Rumours spread among guests that there were army snipers inside the 517-room hotel, which now overlooks a sprawling encampment filled with anti-government 'Red Shirts'. Violent clashes have broken out in the area between demonstrators and troops. It was unclear where the shooting that hit the hotel came from. A renegade general allied with 'Red Shirt' protesters was shot in the head in a nearby area last week. His supporters said he was targeted by an army sniper. The military has said it would use marksmen in its lockdown operation launched last Thursday to contain protesters within their main camp. The mood was calm in the basement but one female guest appeared to have fainted. Guests were later moved to a lobby, far away from the street. 'Someone explained the reason we were here was that there was first some shooting and a fire in the roof,' said Ugarte, AFP's chief photographer for South Asia, normally based in New Delhi, who was stayed on the 20th floor. The Dusit Thani, whose website describes it as being situated in the heart of the 'City of Angels', has become a magnet for journalists covering the unrest because of its proximity to the action and its views of the rally site. Authorities warned journalists to stay out of the demonstration area, saying they were an easy target for 'terrorists'. Four reporters have been shot and injured and one killed in Bangkok since the unrest began in March. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 The best reporting on this fighting is coming from Michael Yon's Facebook page (no kidding). http://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2010-05-17 08:32 |