Thai troops patrol Bangkok after clashes

By Pracha Hariraksapitak

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's military put troops on the streets of Bangkok on Tuesday to keep order after a day of battles between police and anti-government protesters in which more than 380 people were injured.

One man was killed by a car bomb near parliament, police said, where protesters involved in a four-month campaign to unseat the government battled riot police in clouds of teargas.

Army commander Anupong Paochinda said police asked for help and he denied rumors of a coup, two years after the military ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless putsch.

"People should not panic. Soldiers will not launch a coup since it will not be good for the country," he told reporters.

The clashes began after dawn when police cleared a path through 5,000 members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) besieging parliament since Monday in a bid to bar cabinet ministers from the opening session.

By evening, 381 people had been treated for gas and other injuries, 48 of them seriously hurt, after the worst street violence since clashes between the army and pro-democracy activists in 1992.

Local media said two policemen were shot and another stabbed.

One protester lost a foot and another had his leg severed by exploding gas canisters, prompting Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh to take responsibility and quit.

He said he had asked police to exercise restraint.

"Since this action did not achieve what I planned, I want to show my responsibility for this operation," Chavalit said in his resignation letter.

As soldiers moved into the streets, the PAD, an extra-parliamentary coalition of businessmen, academics and activists, began pulling back to the Government House compound it has occupied since late August.

The group accuses new Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat of being a puppet for Thaksin, his brother-in-law, and vowed to keep campaigning until he dissolved parliament.

The PAD argues Thai democracy has been undermined by billionaire Thaksin and his allies, who easily won the last three elections, and has called for "new politics" that would include a proportion of appointed MPs.

"Overthrow the Thaksin regime. Together we win or lose. We will know it today. We won't give up," PAD leader Anchalee Paireerak said.

CRISIS DEEPENS