Reporters stuck in police box during Lak Si gunfight

[webfact]

Reporters stuck in police box during gunfight
THE NATION


Preecha Pohpool

BANGKOK: -- FROM EYEWITNESS accounts provided by reporters covering the gunfight at the Lak Si intersection on Sunday, gunfire came from both anti- and pro-government supporters.

However, other mysteries remain, like - who were the armed men blending in with both crowds and engaging their rivals, and which bullets from which sides wounded the six victims?

Matichon Daily reporter Chinnawat Phatthayanont said the gunfights started at around 4.30pm, with shots heard from both sides - pro-government red shirts who converged in front of IT Square Building, and members of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) who travelled from the inner city to Lak Si district office to blockade a ballot storage site in the compound.

Both crowds shouted profanities at each other, before they started throwing objects, he said. This took place after the red shirts attacked a sedan driving through their crowd, and three loud bangs followed. "After rocks, wood and steel bars flew between both groups, there came the gunshots, which were heard from all directions, from both the PDRC and the red shirts' sides," he added.

He said gunmen came with PDRC supporters carrying both handguns and assault rifles, and that he later went inside a traffic police box to seek cover. "It's a frightening two-hour ordeal. My life hung on a thin thread, between life and death," he added.

ASTV reporter Jatuphorn Yordsilp said the red shirts initially wanted to go the district office to wait for PDRC supporters, but agreed to return to IT Square building after talks with the police.

He gave similar details to Chinnawat's, and said he and 11 other journalists and four policemen were sheltering in the same traffic box when they heard shots fired overhead.

The shots were from both sides, with automatic salvos coming mainly from the PDRC, he said. It was like suppressing fire to cover the movement of small [PDRC] crowds from where they were sheltering, to a location near the district office already occupied by fellow protesters, Jatuphorn said.

He said two shots fired from the red shirts' side went through glass windows of the police box. "Everyone in the police box was ducking to the floor, listening to shots fired overhead," he added.

Nation Broadcasting Corporation reporter Preecha Pohpool said women and children were shepherded to the district office for their safety, as requested by a company of soldiers posted near the intersection. He said it was like in a war throughout the one-hour firefight. He said both sides exchanged fire aimed at individuals, and reporters were also under fire, not just protesters from both sides.


-- The Nation 2014-02-04

[Somtamnication]

I am sure the police where hiding behind the reporters' backs while the bullets flew by.

[NongKhaiKid]

I am sure the police where hiding behind the reporters' backs while the bullets flew by.

I would have expected those in the box to have been 11 police and 4 reporters.

[noitom]

Thai police were sheltering in a police box in Bangkok shootout. The story points out that shots came from both sides and two shots from the red shirt side came through the police box window. But the article doesn't state that the reporter probed the 11 people to see if they could pin down which side fired first.

[Emptyset]

He said both sides exchanged fire aimed at individuals, and reporters were also under fire, not just protesters from both sides.

These arm bands probably don't help journalists cause:

Phil Robertson ‏@Reaproy Feb 1

Totally Irresponsible #PDRC action to issue green armbands that are similar color to those issued to journalists covering protests #Thailand

Why did they choose that colour?

[kurtgruen]

Well, now that the Reds are realizing, that the PDRC guards are finally armed and willing to defend their peaceful protesters, maybe they think twice, before attacking again.

Before you had guards with no arms, who could not even chase armed terrorists, who where throwing grenades and bombs into the peaceful Anti-Government crowd. They could not chase them and the police did sweet F*&k all.

Now, at least, they can shoot them and have an identity, next time somebody tries to toss a Grenade.

[NongKhaiKid]

He said both sides exchanged fire aimed at individuals, and reporters were also under fire, not just protesters from both sides.

These arm bands probably don't help journalists cause:

Phil Robertson ‏@Reaproy Feb 1

Totally Irresponsible #PDRC action to issue green armbands that are similar color to those issued to journalists covering protests #Thailand

Why did they choose that colour?

A random choice or deliberate, I know where my money goes. Apparently the journalists association appealed to Suthep to change the colour but were ignored.

[Suriya4]

He said both sides exchanged fire aimed at individuals, and reporters were also under fire, not just protesters from both sides.

These arm bands probably don't help journalists cause:

Phil Robertson ‏@Reaproy Feb 1

Totally Irresponsible #PDRC action to issue green armbands that are similar color to those issued to journalists covering protests #Thailand

Why did they choose that colour?

A random choice or deliberate, I know where my money goes. Apparently the journalists association appealed to Suthep to change the colour but were ignored.

Common sense will tell you that it is deliberate. No need to ask Suthep.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Suriya4

[casualbiker]

He said both sides exchanged fire aimed at individuals, and reporters were also under fire, not just protesters from both sides.

These arm bands probably don't help journalists cause:

Phil Robertson ‏@Reaproy Feb 1

Totally Irresponsible #PDRC action to issue green armbands that are similar color to those issued to journalists covering protests #Thailand

Why did they choose that colour?

A random choice or deliberate, I know where my money goes. Apparently the journalists association appealed to Suthep to change the colour but were ignored.

Common sense will tell you that it is deliberate. No need to ask Suthep.

All/most of the protestors including at other protest sites were wearing the head/arm bands.

Sent from my XT1032 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Bender]

I am sure the police where hiding behind the reporters' backs while the bullets flew by.

No, you absolutely wrong! Only the reporters were hiding in the police box!

All the brave policeman were safely staying at home... well they have listen the advice from the foreign embassy

[NongKhaiKid]

He said both sides exchanged fire aimed at individuals, and reporters were also under fire, not just protesters from both sides.

These arm bands probably don't help journalists cause:

Phil Robertson ‏@Reaproy Feb 1

Totally Irresponsible #PDRC action to issue green armbands that are similar color to those issued to journalists covering protests #Thailand

Why did they choose that colour?

A random choice or deliberate, I know where my money goes. Apparently the journalists association appealed to Suthep to change the colour but were ignored.

Common sense will tell you that it is deliberate. No need to ask Suthep.

My point was the journalists had asked the colour of the protesters armbands be changed and were ignored not why the colour had been chosen. Suthep would have to be crazy to have admitted it was deliberate.

[icommunity]

When an election process is allowed to be blocked without impunity, this is the consequence. The people will take law into their own hands.

[Emptyset]

Well, now that the Reds are realizing, that the PDRC guards are finally armed and willing to defend their peaceful protesters, maybe they think twice, before attacking again.

Before you had guards with no arms, who could not even chase armed terrorists, who where throwing grenades and bombs into the peaceful Anti-Government crowd. They could not chase them and the police did sweet F*&k all.

Now, at least, they can shoot them and have an identity, next time somebody tries to toss a Grenade.

They did give chase in the two grenade incidents. Some of the guards have been armed from the start, with handguns at least. They do of course have a right to defend themselves against terrorism imo, just as anyone does. But do they have a right to block polling stations and so on? Obviously the right to life surpasses the right to vote, so no one should be defending terrorism.

Yet, if they're practicing 'ahimsa' as they claim, then surely they just have to accept attacks rather than respond with weapons? And at Lak Si there was no serious clash until the PDRC militants showed up. Police had defused tensions to a large degree and it probably would've all fizzled out. Of course the PDRC will defend themselves by saying they believed Koh Tee would attack. But there's no evidence he did. In fact I think he drove back to the temple before this clash began.

[Loles]

This police the most coward police in the world, it's not question at all.