9 killed in Bangkok rioting
 

Later, Bangkok Deputy Governor Malinee Sukavrejworakit said four
soldiers, four civilians and a journalist - believed to be a Japanese
national - had died.

An army spokesman, Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd, meanwhile went on national
television to announce that the security forces had retreated, and
appealed to the protesters to disperse.

"If this continues, if the army responds to the red-shirts, the
violence will escalate," he said, adding that some of the protesters
had been using "real bullets and grenades".

A senior government official had been asked to co-ordinate with the
protesters "to bring back peace", Col Sansern said.

A red-shirt leader also called on supporters to pull back.

An earlier confrontation near Phan Fah bridge left five people with
gunshot wounds.

Troops also unsuccessfully sought to clear another protester camp
nearby at the Kok Woa intersection.

The army had earlier declared that it hoped to clear out the
protesters from one site by dusk, and that it would employ "soft
measures and hard measures".

Government spokesman Panithan Wattanayakorn said that "if the security
officers have to use force, they will do it with caution".

Riot police have meanwhile been gathering in the city's main shopping
area, where the red-shirts are planning to hold a mass rally. Most of
the shops in the area have been closed and the city's elevated mass
transit system, the BTS Skytrain, has been shut down.

The red-shirts - a loose coalition of left-wing activists and
supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra - want
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and call an
election.

They say Mr Abhisit came to power illegitimately in a parliamentary
vote after a pro-Thaksin government was forced to step down. Mr
Thaksin was ousted as prime minister in a military coup in 2006.

They have vowed to defy the state of emergency declared on Wednesday
with more rallies. Arrest warrants have been issued for several of the
protest leaders.

BBC News - Nine killed as Thai troops try to clear protest camp