Two people died and hundreds were injured in Bangkok today, as police fought to prevent thousands of protesters from seizing control of Thailand’s Parliament .

Two demonstrators lost their legs and eight police officers were shot or stabbed in the latest confrontation in months of chaotic and sometimes violent protests between the elected Thai Government and the group that is demanding its overthrow, the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD).

Police bombarded the demonstrators with tear gas throughout the day to try and disperse about 8,000 protesters. They eventually created an exit for the trapped politicians, who hurried out of the building.

A crowd of between 500 and 8,000 demonstrators first attempted to stop MPs from attending the opening of parliament and later, after this has proved unsuccessful, to prevent them from leaving. The casualties inflicted during the operation will further inflame a raging political confrontation which has driven the country’s Prime Minister out of his offices and forced him to work out of an abandoned airport.

More than 380 people were injured by the impact of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, according to the hospital that treated them, a handful of them critically. Television images showed one demonstrator who had lost his foot. Journalists at the scene reported seeing at least three PAD protesters carrying guns, and two police inside the parliamentary compound were shot in the chest and in the shoulder from outside by unknown parties.

One other person was killed in a separate incident when a jeep exploded near the headquarters of a party allied with the Government, apparently because of a bomb, a mile from the scene of the demonstrations.

Overnight the PAD had erected barricades of barbed wire and tyres to prevent the opening of Parliament, without which Somchai Wongsawat, the Prime Minister, could not fulfil his constitutional duty of announcing his legislative programme.

“The speech will take place as scheduled by the parliament president,” said Mr Somchai. “I came in to do my job, so I will not quit working. A decision will come at an appropriate time.”

Having failed to prevent the Prime MInister from being evicted from his office by an unarmed mob, the Bangkok police evidently decided that surrendering Parliament too would be a step too far. "We did not use any weapon other than tear gas and shields to clear the path for parliamentarians to go into the building,” Major General Umnuey Nimmanno, the deputy Bangkok police chief, said. “It is conventional practice in dispersing a crowd. We did not use disproportionate force.”

The PAD’s initial goal was the overthrow of Mr Somchai’s predecessor, Samak Sundaravej. He was elected last December after the general election victory of his People Power Party (PPP), and made no secret of his loyalty to Thaksin Shinawatra, the most popular, but most divisive, prime minister in Thailand’s history.

Mr Thaksin’s enemies, mainly among the urban middle class, accused him of using his great wealth to compromise human rights, freedom of the press, and of undermining the constitutional checks and balances on his own power. But he was adored by rural Thais, who felt themselves to be unrepresented by Thailand’s mainstream political establishment.

He faced criminal charges for alleged fraud perpetrated during his period in office. After his wife was convicted by a Thai court, Mr Thaksin abandoned his attempts to return to power. In August he skipped bail and flew back to exile in London, where he has applied for political asylum.

Mr Samak was forced to resign in bizarre circumstances last month, after a court ruled that he improperly accepted payment for his appearance on a television cookery programme. But the subsequent election of Mr Somchai has done little to soothe the PAD, because he is Mr Thaksin’s brother-in-law.

Despite its name, the PAD advocates an end to a fully democratic system in favour of a partially appointed assembly. “No matter how hot it will be, how heavily it will rain, how hungry you will be, or how desperately you want to go to toilet, you must surround parliament to prevent this government from delivering its policy to parliament,” its most prominent leader, the media magnate Sondhi Limthongkul, said overnight on a specially erected stage at Government House.

Around ten thousand protesters have gathered there, many of them sleeping rough in the official compound, promising to protect their nine leaders who have been charged with numerous crimes including insurrection. In the past few days, two of them — Chamlong Srimuang and Chaiwat Sinsuwong — have been arrested after leaving the sanctuary of Government House.

Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the Deputy Prime Minister, resigned to take responsibility for the casualties.

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