2 killed, 41 wounded in attack on Thai rally

BANGKOK—Thousands of supporters of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met on Sunday hours after an attack on an antigovernment rally killed two people and wounded 41, media said, raising tension in the country’s protracted political crisis.

In further violence on Sunday, an explosion wounded at least 24 people near an antigovernment protest site in central Bangkok normally teeming with weekend shoppers.

“A bomb went off in front of the Big C supermarket in Ratchaprasong. At the moment, we know that at least eight people were injured but we have no idea how severe the injuries are,” Thai national security chief Paradorn Pattanathabutr told Reuters.

Gunmen shot at a protest stage and threw grenades in the Khao Saming district of the eastern province of Trat on Saturday evening, media said.

Among the seriously wounded was an 8-year-old girl who suffered a shot in the head, the Bangkok Post said.

Antigovernment protesters have blocked main Bangkok intersections for weeks with tents, tires and sandbags, seeking to unseat Yingluck and halt the influence of her billionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, an ousted former premier regarded by many as the real power behind the government.

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, a protest movement largely made up of “red shirt” Thaksin supporters based in the populous north and northeast, held a meeting of its leaders from across the country on Sunday in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeast of the capital.

Chair Tida Tawornseth said Sunday’s rally would consolidate plans to restore democracy after the opposition boycotted and disrupted elections thismonth.