Protests in Thailand

Soldiers deployed onto the streets of Bangkok, the armed forces called on to help keep the peace after a day of rioting in which police failed to disperse anti-government protesters. Skirmishes continued into the night. The demonstrators refusing to back down, continuing to confront riot police.

We're late in the night and police are continuing to release tear gas into the crowd. They're trying to push the protesters back to the government house where they have been since late August. All day there have been these ongoing skirmishes between police and the protesters and it doesn't seem to be over yet.

Earlier in the evening police trapped protesters and our cameraman in the ?????? of streets surrounding parliament. A car bomb exploded nearby killing one person and injuring bystanders. It is unclear who detonated the device. The crackdown began just after 6 am, an early morning raid that caught the protesters by surprise. They'd stormed Thailand's parliament compound overnight--their second target in as many months, hours before the new prime minister was to set out his governments policies, the protesters tried to blockage the entrances to the parliament building. At around 6:20 local time, riot police moved in. Witnesses say dozens of tear gas canisters were fired into the crowd. For some, the results were devastating. This man lost part of his leg in the attack. Another man with his back torn apart was seen limping from the scene. Others injured in the chaos were carried away. Many of the protesters were seen trying to wash the stinging residue from their eyes.

"We will fight until we win, for sure. Not only me, everybody. You can ask everybody."

Senators who boycotted the parliamentary session came out to greet the protesters. They say the government has blood on its hands.

"All these people, they are here for one thing: because they love this country. They love his majesty the king. So they have their own reason, you know."

Police took about 20 minutes to break open the blockade. And Hees began arriving for the parliamentary session about an hour after the attack. The policy speech went ahead as planned. Tuesday's clash surprised many. The Thai authorities had taken a "softly, softly" approach in dealing with the protesters who stormed the government house in late August. They accused the government of being a puppet of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawat who was ousted in a military coup. The new prime minister is Thaksin's brother in law who appears to be taking a harder line. Any hopes of a reconciliation between these two sides now seems unlikely. The protest leaders are condemning the attacks. Riot police and the army remain on standby. It seems nothing is resolved here in Thailand.

Salin Downs, Al Jazeera, Bangkok