An hour-long gun battle erupted in the Thai capital of Bangkok on Saturday, a day ahead of parliamentary elections opposed by anti-government activists were to take place.
The opposition is seeking the ouster of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose Pheu Thai Party won overwhelmingly in 2011 elections. They have boycotted the polls and threatened to disrupted them in a bid to replace Yingluck's government with an unelected council.
Michael Sullivan, reporting for NPR from Bangkok, says at least seven people have been wounded in a confrontation between pro- and anti-government supporters in the city's north ahead of Sunday's polling. An American photojournalists was among those hurt.
"Supporters of beleaguered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra marched on the district office in order to confront the protesters and it didn't end well. Rocks and firecrackers gave way to gunfire and grenades and the situation on the scene is still tense," Michael says.
The Associated Press says "people caught up in the mayhem crouched behind cars and ducked on a pedestrian bridge while others fled inside a nearby shopping mall."
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