BANGKOK (Reuters) - A grenade blast wounded 8 protesters occupying the Thai prime minister’s office on Saturday, raising tension on the eve of a major anti-government rally, police and protest leaders said.
“An M-79 grenade exploded 50 meters outside our camp and wounded our brothers as they patrolled nearby,” Chamlong Srimuang, a co-leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), told supporters at Government House.
Two PAD guards were seriously wounded in the attack which occurred around 2 a.m., police said.
The PAD is calling Sunday’s march on parliament “its final battle” to oust the government, which it blames for a grenade attack on their Bangkok protest site on Thursday that killed one person and wounded 23.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, whom the PAD accuse of being the puppet of exiled leader Thaksin Shinawatra, his brother-in-law, has denied any involvement in the grenade blast.
Somchai is attending an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru until the latter half of next week.
Police are braced for violence at the Sunday rally and have asked the army for reinforcements to prevent a repeat of last month’s bloody street battles, in which two people were killed and hundreds wounded.
Major bloodshed would raise the chances of a military coup only two years after the army’s removal of Thaksin, although army chief Anupong Paochinda has said repeatedly a putsch would do nothing to resolve Thailand’s fundamental political rifts.
Public sector unions have called for a nationwide strike on Tuesday unless Somchai stands aside, a threat that, if carried out, would deepen the economic impact of a political crisis now in its fourth year.
The PAD is led by a group of royalist businessmen, academics and activists who say they are fighting to prevent Thaksin, now living in exile, from returning to power following his removal in a bloodless 2006 coup.
Its campaign, which started in late 2005 and contributed heavily to the coup, has paralyzed government decision-making and exacerbated the threat of recession in Thailand as its export-oriented economy takes a hit from a global slowdown.
People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters camped in the grounds of Government House 
Early this morning, a grenade attack on People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters at Thailand's Government House injured eight, two seriously.

This is the second attack this week, following an earlier grenade attack on Thursday which killed one and injured between 20 and 29. The earlier attack prompted planning for a rally and march on parliament tomorrow where the PAD aims to try and topple the current People's Power Party (PPP) government.

According to Thailand's English-language paper, ''The Nation'', doctors have stated that one of those injured in the blast is brain dead. Anupong Samerphak, one of the PAD security staff, was hit in the body and neck by shrapnel from the grenade and remains on a respirator.

Further details of ''The Nation's'' report state that eyewitnesses claim two teenagers made use of a grenade launcher to carry out the attack before making their escape on a motorcycle. In addition to the eight casualties, two pick-up trucks, a car, and a motorcycle were damaged; the blast left a crater near the Fifth gate of the Government House compound.

The anti-government PAD protesters have now been occupying the Government House compound for over three months, demanding the dissolution of the government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. They assert that the PPP is acting on behalf of deposed former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist Thai Rak Thai (lit. Thais love Thais) government was overthrown by a military coup in 2006 and later outlawed. Both Somchai and his predecessor in the post of PM, Samak Sundaravej, have faced fierce criticism from the yellow-shirted protest movement. Samak was forced out of office in September, with Somchai, Thaksin's brother-in-law, acting as caretaker until officially assuming the office later in September.

The embattled current PM, Somchai, expressed fears to journalists over the planned PAD protest for tomorrow and Monday. Speaking in Peru, where he is attending an APEC summit, he highlighted the possibility of the demonstrations impeding the passage of 24 new laws related to the country's involvement in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Delegations from other nations attending the APEC summit have expressed surprise that Thailand has not taken action to dislodge the protesters from Government House.