By Vithoon Amorn
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The Thai army cracked down on anti-government protesters on Monday, firing warning shots at a major junction in the capital at demonstrators who responded by hurling firebombs, witnesses said.
The clashes, two days after protesters forced the cancellation of an Asian summit, have undermined confidence in the government and dealt another blow to an economy, reeling from political chaos last year and the global financial crisis.
Bangkok Medical Centre director Peeraphong Saicheau told Reuters clashes at the junction injured 77 people, including 19 admitted to hospitals. Four had gunshot wounds -- two civilians and two soldiers.
A number of protesters had been arrested, said Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd.
Sansern said the fracas began when troops in vehicles with loudspeakers asked the red-shirted protesters to lift a blockade they have maintained for days at Din Daeng junction.
The junction is a crucial part of Bangkok's traffic system, although Monday is the start of a three-day holiday for the Thai New Year and many people have already left for the provinces. Financial markets are shut until Thursday because of the holiday.
Troops fired into the air at Din Daeng as they repeatedly charged the demonstrators, a Reuters reporter said.
Troops had rolled up water cannon and demonstrators had covered the road in gas, apparently threatening to set it ablaze if troops moved in.
Protesters commandeered an LPG tanker near the junction and were filling bottles with gas for their firebombs.
"We won't leave. We want real democracy," said one "red shirt" standing at the junction where protesters had driven six public buses to create a roadblock. "We're not scared of the army," said the man who gave his name as Wi.
SMOKE RISING
Fires blazed in the street and plumes of smoke rose from burning tyres. Ambulances and firetrucks were on standby.
A Buddhist monk with a megaphone stood in the intersection pleading for calm and telling the soldiers: "Don't shoot, think about your country." Police on motorbikes shuttled between troops and demonstrators to mediate.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in Bangkok on Sunday after red-shirted supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra forced the cancellation of the Asian summit in the southern beach resort of Pattaya.
Thaksin's supporters say Abhisit only became premier last December because of parliamentary defections the army engineered. They want new elections, which they would be well placed to win.
Several thousand "red shirts" were encamped at Government House, about 4 kms (2.5 miles) from Din Daeng junction, where they have been demonstrating for nearly three weeks.
Their numbers have shrunk considerably from around 40,000 on Sunday night and busloads were seen leaving to reinforce the Din Daeng blockade, Reuters reporters at the scene said.
Train services were cancelled in the the north of the capital where the trouble was.
Abhisit had threatened on Sunday to take tough action against the protesters.
He had been humiliated before his Asian peers when the "red shirts" bowled over riot troops at the summit in Pattaya and smashed their way into summit venue. Some leaders had to be evacuated by helicopter.
Thaksin, who has been making nightly phone calls to his supporters from exile, said on Sunday it was now the "golden time" to rise up against the government.
He repeated his call for a "people's revolution" and said he was ready to move back to Thailand to lead a people's uprising if there was a coup.
Thailand has seen 18 coups since 1932 and another one is certainly a possibility if there is blood in the streets.
The chaos in the capital is bound to further hit the tourism sector, one of Thailand's biggest foreign exchange earners, and several countries have already warned against travelling to the kingdom.
(Additional reporting by Alan Raybould, Vithoon Amorn, John Ruwitch and Kittipong Soonprasert; Writing by Bill Tarrant; Editing by David Fox)