PRIME MINISTER Abhisit Vejjajiva said on national television at 11.25pm that he had tried peaceful solutions but the reds continued to elevate their level of violence to the point where he had to take action. He said he was sorry that people had been killed and injured.


ONE BODY from tonight's bloodbath involving red protesters and the army is being kept by the red protesters to make a point, Phuketwan was told tonight.

Phuket red leader Suntorn Toema, at the frontline in a month of protesting in Bangkok, said the reds wanted to show the man's body as evidence that the army had killed protesters.

''The body is on our stage now,'' Khun said by telephone from the key bridge in Bangkok that has long been the reds' main gathering point. ''We want to show what the army did.'' Khun Suntorn did not know the man's name, but said he was 34 years old.

At least nine and possibly more people were killed in clashes on Saturday night between the red shirts and the army, including a Japanese journalist who worked for a news agency. About 400 others, including both soldiers and protesters, were injured.

Peace talks brought the short, sharp and bloody 30-minute encounter to a conclusion before 11pm.

The killings ended any chance that Thailand could resume its normal tourism industry focus quickly, with Hong Kong's government lifting its alert from red to black while the bullets were still flying.

The black alert means that Hong Kong is advising its citizens to avoid Bangkok and travel to Thailand, a level of alert that other countries may quickly follow.

Yet as has been the case throughout the month-long stand-off that ended in a bloodbath this evening, Phuket and other destinations in Thailand remain safe havens for tourists.

Khun Suntorn, who sold his car in Phuket when the rally began from March 12 to fund his trip to Bangkok, said: ''I was hit by tear gas and assaulted by soldiers. We were demonstrating peacefully, as we have done all along.''

Khun Suntorn led 500 protesters from Phuket to Bangkok but the number has since dwindled to about 50.

Phuket and the Andaman region has been fortunate to offer an alternative to Bangkok as a direct-flight destination within Thailand. However, tonight's deaths and injuries are likely to bring a wave of cancellations, just as Phuket was looking forward to a successful Songkran Thai New Year Festival next week.