Metro Police ordered to clear Chula Hospital’s gates

BANGKOK, 1 May 2010 (NNT) – Deputy Prime Minister for Security Affairs Suthep Thaugsuban has ordered the Metropolitan Police Bureau to remove the bunkers blocking the gates of King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.

As the Director of the Center for the Resolution of Emergency Situations (CRES), Mr Suthep said he had instructed the police to tear down all barricades obstructing the hospital’s entrances and exits, which were set up by the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) protesters, in order to facilitate incoming patients.

Tasked with taking control of the hospital area, security forces will be posted to ensure safety for the public and to prevent UDD protesters from intruding the premises again. Mr Suthep stressed that if the officers failed to secure the place, they would be subject to penalty.

Security at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital has been beefed up after a group of some 200 UDD guards stormed into the compound on Thursday night to search for state troops rumored to be hiding and preparing to disperse the UDD gathering at Ratchaprasong Junction nearby.