Grenade attack kills Thai protestor

A grenade attack on protesters occupying the Thai prime minister's office in Bangkok has killed a protester and wounded 23 others.

The Bangkok Post said an M-79 grenade had exploded near the main stage of the protest which began in late August.

The leader of the long-running anti-government street movement has called for a major rally to oust the "murderous" administration after the death.

Sondhi Limthongkul accused the government of having a hand in the firing of the bomb in the early hours of Thursday into the prime minister's official compound.

The area has been occupied by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) since August.

"The PAD can no longer tolerate this murderous government that kills its people daily and cruelly," Mr Limthongkul said.

The government denied Mr Limthongkul's accusation of official involvement in the blast.

Besides the dead man, identified as a 48-year-old with shrapnel wounds to the chest, 23 people were hurt in the blast, the most serious in a series of small attacks against the PAD sit-in in the last few weeks.

The PAD, a loose coalition of royalist businessmen and academics who accuse the government of being a puppet of ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra, have managed to muster crowds in the tens of thousands this year.

However, in the last few weeks the crowds at Government House have been dwindling, largely through fatigue and the absence of anything too inflammatory from the government, which is operating out of temporary offices at an old airport.

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