Bangkok:
Fresh unrest boiled over in Bangkok on Monday as rapid gunfire and explosions echoed before dawn outside the luxury hotels bordering the barricaded protest zone, where the military has attempted to seal in thousands of demonstrators camping in the downtown streets.
Local broadcaster TNN showed video of guests at the upscale Dusit Thani hotel being rushed to the basement for safety.
Reporters at the scene said the gunfire came both from government forces and protesters holed up inside the encampment who appear to have stockpiled a sizeable arsenal of weapons.
Meanwhile, Major General Khattiya Sawasdiphol, a renegade army officer accused of creating a paramilitary force for the Red Shirt protesters, died on Monday of gunshot wounds, the Vajira Hospital reported.
The death came five days after he was shot in the head by a sniper in downtown Bangkok while talking to journalists inside the perimeter of the protest zone.
The attack on Khattiya, more popularly known as Seh Daeng, triggered widespread street fighting between anti-government protesters and the army in central Bangkok.
The Red Shirts have been protesting since mid-March demanding the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the dissolution of Parliament and new elections.
Thailand's government said on Sunday a crackdown on Red Shirt protesters would continue despite the protesters' plea for United Nations-mediated talks.
The government maintained it was only targeting armed "terrorists" among the Red Shirts.
Earlier on Sunday, the Red Shirt leadership said it would negotiate with the Thai government, on condition the army ended its crackdown.
A towering column of black smoke rose over Bangkok on Sunday as demonstrators facing off with troops set fire to tyres serving as a barricade.
Soldiers have encircled the protest zone in a wide perimeter.
Most of the fighting is taking place in the no-man's land in between.
The Red Shirt fighters have used homemade petrol bombs, firecrackers, rocks - and in some cases guns - to attack troops positioned behind sandbag bunkers.
The soldiers have responded with rubber bullets and live ammunition.
According to government figures, 65 people have died and more than 1,600 have been wounded since the Red Shirts began their protests in March.
The toll includes 36 killed, most of them civilians, and 266 wounded since Thursday in fighting that has turned parts of central Bangkok into a battleground.