May 20, 2010
Source: Herald Sun
Wire Service: AFP
Thai police have escorted thousands of protesters out of a Buddhist temple where they had cowered overnight after nine people were killed there in gun battles.
People clutching belongings and children filed out of the pagoda, leaving behind the bodies of six of the victims, laid out in the shade under a portrait of Thailand's revered king.
Authorities promised to swiftly investigate the deaths at the temple, which had been declared a "safe zone" during a deadly army campaign to close down the "Red Shirts" protest camp, a crackdown that left at least seven others dead.