Anti-government protesters who have paralysed Thailand’s international airport for the past week promised to abandon their demonstrations yesterday after their Prime Minister was forced from power by the country’s highest court.

The announcement brings relief for a quarter of a million tourists, including thousands of Britons, who could start returning home tomorrow. They have been stranded in Thailand since the seizure of Suvarnabhumi international airport by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which had been demanding the resignation of Somchai Wongsawat, the Prime Minister, and his Government. The Airports of Thailand authority said that it expected partial services to resume tomorrow night.

The ruling yesterday angered supporters of Mr Somchai’s Government, who have held vociferous but so far peaceful rallies of their own in other parts of Bangkok. The fear is that they will now take on the PAD in street battles.

Mr Somchai’s People Power Party was effectively disbanded after Thailand’s constitutional court ruled that one of its members had bribed voters during the election campaign last year. The constitution stipulates that if a party is dissolved all its senior executives must be barred from politics for five years.

The PPP had expected the decision and has already created a back-up “shell” party, Puea Thai – “For Thais” – which will attempt next week to form a new government.

If they are successful Thailand will have a new leader who – like Mr Somchai – is a supporter of the PAD’s nemesis, Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed former Prime Minister.

“We are extremely happy that the puppet of Thaksin Shinawatra has fallen,” a senior PAD member, Chok-chuang Chutinaton, told The Times. “But if the caretaker government is made of former government members, we absolutely will reject it.”

There was an omen of potential violence yesterday when a grenade exploded at another airport – Don Muang – injuring 22 PAD demonstrators and killing one man. So far the only other fatalities in the crisis have been four tourists, one Dutch, one from Hong Kong and two Canadians, who died in traffic accidents while attempting to escape from Thailand by road.

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