A GRENADE attack on protesters occupying the Thai prime minister's office in Bangkok killed one person and wounded 23.

It was the most serious assault on the three-month sit-in at the compound in the capital, police and protest leaders said. An M79 grenade had exploded near the main stage of the protest, which began in late August to force the elected government from power.

"Last night they threw a bomb at our rally at Government House," protest spokeswoman Anchalee Paireerak told the crowd. The People's Alliance for Democracy protest is led by royalist businessmen and academics trying to prevent former leader Thaksin Shinawatra returning to power following his removal in a 2006 coup.

The campaign, which started in late 2005 and contributed heavily to the coup, has paralysed government decision-making and exacerbated the threat of recession in Thailand.

The attack is likely to contribute to another fall for Thai stocks, which will be under pressure after US equity markets plunged to their lowest levels in more than five years yesterday.

Thailand's political temperature has been relatively calm the last two weeks as attention turned to last weekend's cremation of the king's elder sister.

Last month, one renegade former general threatened to launch daily bomb attacks against the demonstrators.

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