BANGKOK — Gunfire rang out across a busy intersection in Thailand’s capital for more than an hour Saturday as government supporters clashed with protesters trying to derail tense nationwide elections one day before the vote begins.
At least seven people were wounded, including an American photojournalist.
People caught up in the mayhem crouched behind cars and ducked on a pedestrian bridge while others fled inside a nearby shopping mall. Masked gunmen wearing armored vests bent down under a highway overpass as one of them fired a weapon concealed in a green sack.
The exchange of fire was the latest flare-up in a months-long struggle by protesters to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s beleaguered government, which they accuse of corruption.
The turmoil raises the prospect of more violence Sunday, when polls open for an electoral contest that has devolved into a battle of wills between the government and protesters — and those caught in between who insist on their right to vote.
The confrontation Saturday began after a group of pro-government supporters marched to a district office in the northern Bangkok suburb of Laksi. The office had been surrounded by protesters intent on preventing ballot boxes housed inside from being delivered to a nearby polling station Sunday.
Tensions mounted for hours before clashes broke out. As gunfire rattled the area and people screamed in fear, a mob of pro-government supporters wielding huge sticks smashed the windshields of a car carrying protesters that sped away.
Associated Press journalists saw a gunman allied with protesters firing an assault rifle, and another firing a pistol as he lay on his stomach on the road. Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said several pro-government gunmen climbed to the mall’s rooftop and began firing down toward rivals.
Police said they will deploy 100,000 officers nationwide, while the army is putting 5,000 soldiers in Bangkok to boost security. More than 47 million people are registered to vote.
