A man dressed as a Buddhist monk was arrested this morning after he stormed Thailand's parliament with an assault rifle, taking about 30 hostages and demanding to speak with the prime minister.
Police captured the assailant following a one-hour standoff, during which he fired into the air once. No one was injured.
"I am demanding to talk with Prime Minister Thaksin (Shinawatra) to lodge a complaint about my unjust treatment when I was arrested by the local police," the man, who identified himself as Sayan Chitasuro, said through a megaphone before his arrest.
The violence came minutes before the 500-member elected lower house was set to debate a no-confidence motion against 15 individual cabinet members.
In a lengthy speech though a mobile phone to reporters, the man said he was arrested in 1996 for trespassing in a national park.
The man, who claimed to be from Chan Buri province bordering Cambodia, said he had come to parliament to hand a petition to the president of the parliament and to see the prime minister.
AP