Protesters abandon Bangkok refuge

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities restored order in Bangkok on Thursday after a night of rioting and fires that veered towards anarchy as troops took control of a camp occupied by thousands of anti-government protesters for six weeks.

The mostly rural and urban poor protesters had deserted their once-barricaded 3 sq-km (1.2 sq-mile) rally site in central Bangkok. Hundreds who had taken refuge in a temple were coaxed out by police. Six bodies were found inside.

Troops had faced heavy resistance overnight by remnants of the red-shirted protesters armed with guns at the temple in a standoff the military-backed government described as organised by terrorists. By morning it was over.

"This was organised violence," said government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn.

A curfew in Bangkok and 23 provinces was extended for another three nights, raising questions of whether authorities feared more unrest in the deeply polarised country.

"The crisis of the past few weeks has ... only deepened the divisions within Thailand, which will sustain political tensions and lead to opportunistic political attacks," said Roberto Herrera-Lim, Asia director of the New York-based Eurasia Group.

In the north and northeast provinces, a red shirt stronghold and home to just over half of Thailand's 67 million people, there were scattered signs of violence overnight but trouble spots were mostly calm on Thursday, witnesses said.

Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said about 13,000 people were still "actively waiting to riot and perpetrate illegal acts" in provinces under a state of emergency.

In Bangkok, fires at 39 sites still simmered but most had been extinguished. Central World, Southeast Asia's second-biggest department store and a symbol of wealth, was destroyed. Many of its supporting steel beams had collapsed.

The protesters' tented encampment in the heart of Bangkok's commercial district -- an area lined with luxury hotels and shopping plazas -- was strewn with rubbish, clothing and the smell of refuse and human waste. Troops roamed the area and some were positioned on an overhead subway system.

There were no signs of clashes as reporters walked freely through the area.

Groups of soldiers sat on a sidewalk near the twisted wreckage of trucks that had been packed with explosives and blown up at barricades overnight. In contrast to the tension of recent days in the area, they looked relaxed, smiling at journalists.

Ten journalists have been shot in six days of violence, including an Italian cameraman killed on Wednesday.

The surrender of key protest leaders on Wednesday and a seeming end for now to violence that has killed at least 50 people and wounded nearly 400 in six days could put the focus back on early elections and a "reconciliation roadmap" the prime minister had proposed before the latest bout of violence.

'WOUNDED HEARTS AND MINDS'

"We can immediately fix the roads but we do not know how long it will take to fix the wounded hearts and minds of the people," Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra told local television.

The red shirts want fresh elections, saying Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva lacks a proper mandate after coming to power in a controversial parliamentary vote in 2006 with tacit military support. Abhisit last week withdrew an offer of fresh elections.

The unrest has severely hit Thailand's tourism industry, a key employment sector. Passengers at the main Bangkok airport have been halved to 60,000-70,000 daily and daily flights have been cut to 600 from 750.

One of the fires also badly damaged the stock exchange.

The market will be closed on Thursday and Friday and the Bank of Thailand said banks around the country would also stay shut. The whole week has been declared a public holiday in an effort to keep people out of central Bangkok.

Television channels have been ordered to air only sanctioned programmes. They broadcast images of bulldozers pushing aside tyre and bamboo barricades as workers in trucks, under the protection of troops, cleaned up the protest camp site.

A single red shirt flag in the rubble flew limply in the morning breeze until it was crushed by a bulldozer.

Authorities imposed the curfew on 24 provinces -- about a third of the total -- after outbursts of unrest in seven regions, particularly in the north, a "red shirt" stronghold.

Town halls were set ablaze in three northern areas.

The protesters are mostly drawn from the rural and urban poor and largely back former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist tycoon who was ousted in a 2006 coup and now lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail term for graft.

They started demonstrating in mid-March, demanding that the government step down and new elections be held. More than 70 people have been killed and nearly 2,000 wounded since then.

Thaksin told Reuters the crackdown could spawn guerrilla warfare.

Early this month, Abhisit offered an election in November, just over a year before he needed to call one, but talks foundered and that offer was taken off the table.

(Additional reporting by Ambika Ahuja and Nopporn Wong-Anan; Writing by Jason Szep; editing by Bill Tarrant)