THOUSANDS OF passengers were evacuated from Bangkok’s international airport on Wednesday after anti-government protesters stormed the main terminal.
The protesters were calling for the resignation of Thailand’s Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
General Anupong Paochinda, the commander of Thailand’s army, ordered demonstrators to leave the airport but also declared that the country’s government should dissolve and call new elections to solve the crisis.
General Paochinda denied suggestions that the military was intending to stage a coup.
At the time The Resident went to press, the Foreign Office (FO) said some British travellers had already passed through immigration controls at Bangkok airport but were unable to board planes.
They remain stuck, visa-less, in a “no-man’s land” between immigration and aircraft. The FO website describes the political situation in Thailand as “very uncertain”.
John Vandenburg, a British tourist, told Sky News that his wife and son had managed to fly out of Thailand on Tuesday night but only after a fraught journey to the terminal and hours of delays.
“We had already driven from Rayong then it took us two hours to drive into the terminal which had been blockaded by the protestors,” he said, adding: “It was very frightening for my family seeing baton-wielding people running about.”
