Thai troops fired at protesters this morning in a third day of fighting on Bangkok's streets that has killed 24 people as soldiers struggle to isolate a sprawling encampment of demonstrators seeking to topple the government.
No foreigners have been identified as among the dead, all of whom were said to be civilians.
Thai Prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said security forces would not retreat but would press forward with plans to halt an increasingly violent protest in Bangkok.
"The government has to go forward. We cannot retreat. What we are doing is for the benefit of the country," he said in a televised address. "We cannot leave the country in the hands of armed groups."
Earlier, soldiers crouched behind sandbags or atop buildings fired live rounds at protesters armed with petrol bombs, guns and homemade rockets in clashes around the business district. One was shot in the chest while trying to ignite a tyre.
At Din Daeng intersection, north of the protest site, three bodies were evacuated on stretchers, a Reuters witness said. Two suffered head wounds. Troops also swarmed into a parking lot at the popular Dusit Thani hotel outside the protest site.
That followed a long night of grenade explosions and sporadic gunfire as the army battled to set up a perimeter around the 3.5 square kilometre barricaded encampment where thousands refuse to leave, including women and children.
"We'll keep on fighting," said Kwanchai Praipana, a leader of the red-shirted protesters, calling on Mr Vejjajiva to resign and take responsibility for Thailand's deadliest political crisis in 18 years.
He said supplies of food, water and fuel were starting to run thin as their usual delivery trucks were blocked but that they had enough to last "days".
Hardcore protesters, gathering in small numbers, set fire to vehicles, including an army truck, and hurled rocks at troops who set up razor wire at checkpoints and asked residents to show identification cards to stop people from joining the mostly rural and urban poor "red shirts".
A sign at one intersection warned residents not to enter a "live bullet area". Another warned of a "rubber bullet area."
The crisis has paralysed Bangkok, squeezed Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy, scared off tourists and choked investment in one of Asia's most promising emerging markets.
It has also stunned "Bangkokians" as one of the world's most bustling cities and tourist hot spots descends into a war zone.
"My ears are ringing with all the shooting last night," said Ratana Veerasawat, a 48-year-old owner of a hole-in-the-wall grocery store north of the protest encampment where many residents were leaving for safer locations.
"It's just awful and getting worse. Best to leave now." United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed concern over "the rapidly mounting tensions and violence".
"He strongly encourages them to urgently return to dialogue in order to de-escalate the situation and resolve matters peacefully," his spokesman said in a statement.
The Canadian government urged both sides to return to talks after a Bangkok-based Canadian journalist was shot three times, one of three journalists wounded in fighting that has spiralled into chaotic urban warfare where front lines shift quickly.
The government said yesterday it would restore order "in the next few days" as the city of 15 million people braced for a final crackdown in the area of high-end department stores, luxury hotels, embassies and expensive residential apartments.
Reuters