(CNN) -- The second grenade attack in three days targeted protesters occupying the Thai prime minister's compound in Bangkok early Saturday, local officials said.
A man receives medical attention after a pre-dawn blast at the Government House in Bangkok Thursday.
The 3 a.m. blast injured eight people, one of them seriously, according to Erawan Rescue Center in Bangkok. The blast comes less than two days after a grenade was fired into the compound, killing one person and wounding 23 others.
One of the key protest leaders, Chamlong Srimuang, said the grenade was launched from the headquarters of the Bangkok Metropolitan police about 500 feet (150 meters) away, The Associated Press reported.
"The grenade was fired from the (police) headquarters. This proves the attackers were government security forces or bad guys who are supported by the government," AP quoted Chamlong as saying at the protest site.
The blast on Thursday was the first fatal assault since supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) seized the Thai government house in August. Other anti-government protesters have been killed in street demonstrations organized by the PAD against the current government.
Protesters claim that the current administration, while democratically elected, acts as a proxy government for one-time Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless coup in 2006.
He returned to Thailand after the People Power Party (PPP) swept to power the following year.
The protesters have held almost daily demonstrations since May. They seized the government house in August, fortifying it with sandbags, ties and shells of burned-out vehicles.
The PAD had demanded the ouster of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej -- which the country's constitutional court granted in September, saying he'd violated the constitution by appearing as a paid guest on a television cooking show.
But the PPP responded by replacing him with Thaksin's brother-in-law, further inflaming protesters.'World News' 카테고리의 다른 글
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