Blast kills one, wounds 22 at beseiged Bangkok airport

BANGKOK: One anti-government protester was killed and 22 wounded in a grenade attack at Bangkok's occupied domestic airport on Tuesday, in the latest incident targeting demonstrators, emergency services said.

The explosion at Don Mueang airport came just hours after the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) ended a three-month sit-in at the prime minister's offices in Bangkok following a series of grenade attacks.

The hundreds of protesters abandoning the premier's offices moved to Don Mueang and the main Suvarnabhumi international airport, which they seized last week as they upped a six-month campaign to topple the government.

"A 29-year-old man was killed and 22 others wounded in bomb attack early Tuesday (at Don Mueang)," an emergency services spokeswoman told AFP. She said the man died from shrapnel wounds to the stomach.

A grenade attack early Sunday at the prime minister's Government House offices wounded about 50 people, prompting PAD leaders on Monday to vacate the protest site and reinforce their numbers at the two occupied airports.

Two protesters were killed in blasts at Government House last month, in attacks which led to the PAD's "final battle" against the government, which has developed into an economically crippling week-long siege of the airports.

The PAD accuses the current administration of running the country on behalf of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and currently lives in exile abroad to escape corruption charges.