Bangkok protests turn deadly as police clash with demonstrators

At least two people are dead and hundreds have been injured in clashes between anti-government protesters and police on Tuesday in Bangkok.

It was the worst unrest seen in Thailand since bloody clashes between army and pro-democracy activists in "Black May" of 1992.

Police initially broke up the blockade of Parliament by 4,000 protesters early Tuesday morning when they fired teargas, and cleared the way for lawmakers to enter and hear the first policy speech by new Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.

However by the end of the hurried three-hour Parliamentary session, the People's Alliance for Democracy protesters had returned and had sealed off all the exits. Premier Somchai escaped by climbing over a fence into the grounds of Vimarnmek Palace.

More tear gas was fired late in the afternoon, again breaking up the siege and allowing lawmakers to leave.

After the early morning's initial tear-gas attack by police, around 72 people were left injured. As clashes continued throughout the day on Tuesday, the ranks of the injured swelled to 381, with two people dead.

One of the dead was a female protester who died of chest wounds. A man died in an apparent bomb attack in front of the Chart Thai Party headquarters.

Among the injured were two protesters who lost legs in a clash at the Metropolitan Police Bureau. In trying to keep protesters from entering the bureau, police threw homemade bombs, and the impact of the blast took the two men's legs.

According to The Nation, when police fired tear gas in the morning, three protesters lost a right foot, a left leg and a right hand respectively, from the impact of the tear-gas grenade.

Some media reports said one policemen had been shot and another stabbed with a flagpole.

The political crisis pits the government against the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). The government took power in December elections held a year after a military coup ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has since gone into exile in England to escape graft charges. The ruling People's Power Party is largely seen as a nominee of Thaksin's now-banned Thai Rak Thai party, and was brought to power on largely the same populist platform of Thai Rak Thai that appealed to Thailand's rural poor, mainly in Northeast Thailand.

PAD says the People's Power Party bought its way into office, and is seeking to change the Constitution to remove clauses inserted by the post-coup military government that were designed to punish Thaksin. PAD wants a system called "New Democracy" under which half of Parliament would be appointed from the ranks of academia and professional groups.