www.timesofearth.com Bangkok - About 5000 people remain at an anti-government protest site in the capital of Thailand despite the expiry of a government deadline to leave the area. The red shirts were seen dancing inside the fortified encampment, which stretches for several miles in Bangkok, after the 3:00pm local time (0800 GMT) deadline came and went on Monday. "There are some 5000 protesters now at the Ratchaprasong rally site," Major-General Prawut Thavornsiri, a police spokesman, said. Among them were 400 elderly and children taking refuge at a temple in the area, he said. The authorities fixed Monday's deadline in response to deadly clashes in the city that has left dozens of people dead. The authorities said anyone left inside the protest zone would be considered "a criminal" and would face up to two years in prison. It offered to provide buses to take the protesters home if they left voluntarily. The government's move is aimed at choking off the red shirts, who have occupied a roughly 3sq km protest zone barricaded by fuel-soaked tyres and bamboo spikes in Bangkok's shopping and tourist hub since early April. The protesters do not trust the government and fear they will be arrested if they get on the buses. There are also fears that the move to get the women, children and elderly to leave is a precursor to an all-out assault on the protest site. Earlier on Monday, the chief military strategist of the red shirts died in a Bangkok hospital. Major-General Khattiya ...
Tags: Thai, Red, shirts, defy, government, order
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