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Men on a motorcycle threw a firecracker Sunday into a rally protesting against fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, wounding four people including a child, an organiser said.

Men on a motorcycle threw a firecracker Sunday into a rally protesting against fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, wounding four people including a child, an organiser said.

Police confirmed the same number of injured in the incident at the demonstration in central Bangkok led by the royalist "Yellow Shirt" movement, but said they were still investigating the cause.

"Four people including a child were injured when two men on a motorcycle threw a firecracker," Sondhi Limthongkul, founder of the yellow-clad People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), told reporters at the rally.

The protest was held to condemn this week's visit to Cambodia by Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living abroad, mainly in Dubai, to avoid a jail sentence for corruption.

Bangkok police said that four people suffered cuts from a small explosion that left a hole in the ground around eight centimetres (three inches) wide.

"We don't know the cause. We are investigating," a police official said on condition of anonymity.

Thaksin was appointed an economics adviser to the government in Phnom Penh this month and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen refused to extradite him to Thailand, prompting a major diplomatic row.

11/15/2009
Agence France-Presse