Hundreds of protestors have stormed the grounds of Thailand's parliament, forcing government ministers to flee by helicopter.
The red-shirted supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra later retreated, but tens of thousands remain in Bangkok's main shopping district, refusing orders to leave until Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolves parliament.
The scene outside parliament was among the most chaotic and confrontational since the sporadic protests began on 12 March.
Protestors massing outside gates of the sprawling complex pressed up against a line of police in full riot gear.
When some ‘red shirts’ forced open the iron gate, police moved away and hundreds swarmed onto the grounds, including dozens packed on the back of a truck that drove into the main entrance.
They pressed up against security forces outside the lobby doors but left after about 20 minutes only to gather again outside the gates, brandishing guns and tear-gas canisters they said were seized in a scuffle with military police.
‘We have achieved our mission today,’ Korkaew Pikulthong, a ‘red shirt’ leader, told the crowd through a bullhorn.
Ministers had held a cabinet meeting inside the building earlier but some had left before the protestors broke through.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban and several other ministers escaped by helicopter.
‘Many of us climbed over a parliament wall to an adjacent compound where a government helicopter waited to take us away,’ Satit Wongnongtoey, a minister attached to the prime minister's office, said on television.
