ALL BANKS throughout Thailand and the Stock Exchange will close Thursday and Friday. Volunteers are being called up to assist forces during tonight's curfew from 8pm, which has been extended to 21 provinces. Thai television will show only government information programming. Six people have died and 58 have been injured so far in Wednesday's crackdown.


RED protesters are torching Bangkok tonight in a frightening reversal of this afternoon's apparent ending of a street demonstration that was contained in a small part of the capital.

Fire trucks of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation were not able to reach one blaze in a huge shopping mall in Bangkok today because red protesters were in the way.

With darkness descending and the government imposing an overnight curfew in the capital from 8pm to 6am, fresh uncertainty marks the confrontation between troops and protesters who no longer are under the control of their arrested leaders.

As protesters dispersed today in the face of armored vehicles and live-ammunition carrying troops, fires began breaking out across a much wider area of the Thai capital.

The large Central World shopping centre, the Stock Exchange, Maleenon Tower . . . a succession of Bangkok landmark buildings and government offices in at least four northern provinces were set alight or attacked. Channel Three, which operates from the tower, went off-air.

7-Eleven stores, bank branches . . . fires continue to break out, and Bangkok is burning. After dark, with a curfew declared for the first time, the whole of the city will be a dangerous place tonight.

Red shirts were taking cameras from media and from bystanders this afternoon to prevent what might take place being recorded.

While Phuket and the Andaman coast remain safe for tourists, the Thai capital is far from secure - certainly even less secure tonight than it was when the location of the protesters was known.

It could even prove to be far more dangerous than before today's army action, because the red protest is no longer contained, and they no longer are restrained by regular leaders.

A government spokesman was hopeful this afternoon that a five-point government road map could be put in place, providing justice for all. But the fires in Bangkok and northern provinces indicated that not all parties have yet conceded their cooperation.