Two wounded as shots fired on Bangkok protest

BANGKOK: Two people were wounded in a shooting at a Thai anti-government rally Wednesday while a small blast shook a house owned by the opposition leader´s family, raising tensions in the capital after weeks of mass street protests.

Defiant demonstrators vowed to keep up their efforts to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office with their self-styled "Bangkok shutdown", which involves occupying key intersections in the city.

"The two incidents are a signal that the people´s revolution has almost succeeded," rally leader Suthep Thaugsuban told reporters as he led a march through upscale neighbourhoods of Bangkok.

He accused the government of orchestrating the attacks.

A man and a woman were taken to hospital with minor wounds after shots were fired shortly after midnight on the fringes of the protesters´ main base in the capital´s commercial heart, according to the city´s Erawan emergency centre.

Both were discharged overnight. Local reports said they were a garbage man and a protester. Television footage showed dozens of shots fired by unknown gunmen.

Armed provocateurs have a history of trying to stir tensions in the politically polarised kingdom, and several people -- including a policeman -- have been killed by unidentified assailants since the protests began more than two months ago.

Late on Tuesday a makeshift explosive device -- either a small bomb or a firecracker -- was hurled at a house belonging to the family of opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, who is also a former prime minister, but nobody was injured, according to police."The house belongs to Abhisit´s father but no one has lived there for a long time," said Police Colonel Chumpol Pumpuong.