Irate anti-government protesters set fire to at least 35 buildings in Bangkok in a violent rampage sparked by the government's crackdown on their demonstration that left up to 16 dead and 88 wounded, officials said on Thursday.

Post-protest rampage in Bangkok leaves 16 dead

Demonstrators ran amok in central Bangkok Wednesday after Thai troops stormed their protest site, prompting the demonstration's top leadership to surrender.

By Thursday, a semblance of normalcy had returned to the capital after the worst violence the Thai capital had seen in almost two decades, but authorities stopped short of claiming they had totally contained the unrest.

"We have to see what happens in the next couple of hours," the vice minister of the Prime Minister's Office, Issira Suntornvat, said in a television broadcast. "It's nowhere near a failed state."

Several hundred protesters remained Thursday at Ratchaprasong, the upscale, central hotel and shopping district that they had occupied since April 3. The government was trying to persuade them to take hired buses home.

Many of the demonstrators, also known as red shirts for their favoured colour of clothing, are from Thailand's northern and north-eastern provinces, political strongholds of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, a key backer of the protests.

Having failed to achieve their political goals despite clashes with authorities that had left 82 dead over the past two months of protests, the red shirts were incensed by the government's crackdown and their leadership's capitulation on Wednesday.

Their more militant elements went on a rampage in the city, attacking mostly outlets of business groups closely linked to the Thai establishment.

At least 35 buildings were set on fire Wednesday night, the local government said.

Central World Department Store and a Big-C shopping outlet at Ratchaprasong were gutted as firefighters were prevented from reaching the burning buildings by protesters, a Bangkok government official said.

Both outlets belong to the Central Department Group, deemed a supporter of the 'ammat', or Thailand's bureaucratic elite, vilified by the demonstration's leaders, who painted their movement as a class war and people's revolution.

Protesters also set fire to 10 branches of the Bangkok Bank, another business group deemed close to the Thai establishment.

The United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), as the red shirts are officially called, started protesting in Bangkok March 12 in a bid to force Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and hold new elections.

The protests started peacefully, but turned nasty after red shirts raided parliament April 7, prompting the government to declare emergency law in the capital.

A crackdown April 10 left 25 dead, including five soldiers.

On Thursday, the government launched a fresh offensive to oust the UDD.

Over the past week, clashes between troops and protesters have claimed 53 lives, bringing the total toll from the conflict up to 82, including two foreign journalists. About 1,500 people have been wounded.

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