{"id":6381,"date":"2020-10-18T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-17T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=6381"},"modified":"2020-10-18T00:00:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-17T16:00:32","slug":"thousands-gathered-in-bangkok-despite-public-transport-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=6381","title":{"rendered":"Thousands gathered in Bangkok despite public transport shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BANGKOK, Oct 17 — Thousands of protestors gathered at five sites in Bangkok today  in defiance of an emergency decree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite most Metropolitan Rapid Transit (MRT) and Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) Skytrain services being temporarily shutdown hours before the protest, thousands turned up for today\u2019s protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protesters braved the rain and gathered at Lat Phrao intersection, Bangna intersection, Wongwian Yai, Asoke BTS Station as well as Samyan Mitrtown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protests dispersed several hours later.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"thousands\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This followed Friday\u2019s evening crackdown at Pathumwan intersection where police fired stinging liquid from water cannon at protesters to disperse the crowd even though protest organisers only confirmed the move a few hours earlier at about 3.10 pm (local time). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protesters repeated their demands including for the prime minister to step down, a dissolution of parliament, rewriting the constitution, and reform of monarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan o-cha on Thursday declared \u201cSerious Emergency Situation in Bangkok\u201d to ban gathering of five or more people, effective at 4am (local time) in a bid to end three months of student-led street protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, police have arrested about 50 protesters including several leaders and activists since Tuesday, a day before the major rally on Wednesday on 47th anniversary of 1973 uprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, deputy Metropolitan Bangkok police commander Gen Piya Tawichai dismissed claims police used rubber bullet to disperse the crowd on Friday\u2019s night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo tear gas was fired. Water cannon laced with chemical was used to disperse the crowd. It will not pose any health risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— BERNAMA<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BANGKOK, Oct 17 — Thousands of protestors gathered at five sites in Bangkok today  in defiance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af.jpg",1080,579,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af-300x161.jpg",300,161,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af-768x412.jpg",640,343,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af-1024x549.jpg",640,343,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af.jpg",1080,579,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af.jpg",1080,579,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af.jpg",1080,579,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af.jpg",1024,549,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/9fda807e15ccf7f3915e909c3e82b1e25f8b09a6660af.jpg",720,386,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6383,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6381\/revisions\/6383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}