Anti-government demonstrators began to leave their camp in front of the Thai premier's office in Bangkok on Tuesday, after protest leaders said they would disperse to avoid a crackdown by troops.
Hundreds of red-shirted supporters of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra trickled out from the site after the announcement, although others were lingering.
"We held talks among the leaders since last night and have agreed that we will disperse our protesters for a while," Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, one of the core protest leaders, said.
"The reason that we have decided to disperse is because we want to avert any loss of life. Our protesters really want to fight and sacrifice themselves so we wanted to prevent a catastrophe," she said.
The announcement came after hundreds of soldiers backed by armoured vehicles tightened a cordon around an estimated 2,000 protesters left at the site this morning. Troops fired bursts of automatic gunfire and tear gas in running battles with the protesters in the capital on Monday that left two people dead and 113 injured.
"We are not surrendering, we are just dispersing the gathering because we have done nothing wrong," Prateep said, following reports that the protesters would give themselves up.
