Fireworks Blows Up in 14 Year-old Protesters Hand at Bangkok Protests

Police report a 14-year-old anti-government protester blew up his hand off while preparing to throw a firework at police at the demonstration in Bangkok on Wednesday. When he was admitted to hospital where he also tested positive for covid-19.

A deputy spokesman for the Bangkok Metropolitan police said late Wednesday night that the 14-year-old protester tested positive for the virus while receiving treatment for his severely injured hand in an intensive care unit at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok.

The deputy spokesman said that the teenager, who was wearing a vocational student’s workshop shirt, lit the large firework near Din Daeng intersection. It exploded before he could throw it, and the impact blew away part of his left hand.

The spokesman dismissed the report that officers forced the teenager to hold the lit firework until it exploded as fake news. According to the Bangkok Post the teenager was a student in a non-formal education system.

Anti-government protesters clashed with riot police at Din Daeng intersection and its vicinity on Wednesday evening, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas in order to breakup the protests.

The Metropolitan Police Bureau said that eight policemen were injured, mostly from the impact of flares thrown by protesters. It said two policemen who were not on duty at the demonstration were attacked by protesters while returning from work.

Pol Maj Yingyot Thepchamnong, of the Royal Thai Police Office, said several of the arrested protesters also tested positive for Covid-19.

On Thursday morning, police arrested Arthit Sakolwaree, 20, at a dormitory in Phra Pradaeng district, Samut Prakan, and Namchiaw Neamchan, also 20, at an apartment in Chom Thong district, Bangkok, on suspicion of illegal assembly risking disease transmission and setting ablaze two police trucks at the Victory Monument on Wednesday.

Read more trending news, Visit: https://www.chiangraitimes.com/trending-new