(CNN) -- Two people were killed and 21 injured when gunmen on a pickup truck opened fire on an anti-government protest camp in Bangkok, Thai officials say.
Lt. Gen. Paradon Patthanathabut, Thailand's national security chief, said the attack took place around 2 a.m. local time near the site of Bangkok's Democracy Monument, where protesters have been camped for months.
Bangkok's Erawan Emergency Center reported that the two fatally injured victims were a 21-year-old man who was shot in the chest, and a 51-year-old man. The center did not provide further information on his injuries.
Thailand was rocked by rival mass political protests over the weekend, with pro- and anti-government supporters taking to the streets in their tens of thousands following fresh twists in the country's protracted political crisis.
Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was removed from office along with nine cabinet ministers by a top court last Wednesday, and subsequently indicted by the country's anti-graft body.
Protesters led by the People's Democratic Reform Committee have been agitating against her government since November, calling for it to be replaced with an unelected interim government.
The government's 'red shirt' support base, many of whom hail from the country's rural north and northeast, view Shinawatra's ouster as a 'judicial coup' and have been marching to show their support.
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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