The army had vowed to clear protesters out of one of their bases in Bangkok by nightfall, but an Associated Press photographer said the push instead set off street fighting. He said there was the continuous sound of gunfire and explosions, mostly from Molotov cocktails. After more than two hours of fierce clashes, soldiers pulled back.

Army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd went on national television tonight to ask the protesters to retreat as well. He also accused them of firing live rounds and throwing grenades during the fighting.

“The security forces have now retreated to a certain extent from the red shirts,” Sansern said. He said a senior government official has been asked to coordinate with the protesters “to bring back peace” and urged them to back away to avoid more violence.

Eight protesters and a Japanese journalist who worked for Thomson Reuters news agency were killed, said Pichaya Nakwatchara, the director of BMA General Hospital. He said most appeared to have been hit by hard objects on the head and some had gunshot wounds.

Protesters marched the body of a man they said was killed in the fighting to one of their encampments. They carried the man - who had part of his head blown off - on a stretcher. The injury toll for the day rose to 486, according to the government’s Erawan emergency centre. There were reports that several people sustained gunshot wounds. The army said any live rounds were fired only into the air, but confirmed that two of its soldiers had been shot. Government spokesman Panithan Wattanayakorn said more than 60 forces had been injured.

The Red Shirt protesters are demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve Parliament and call new elections. Their demonstrations are part of a long-running battle between the mostly poor and rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and the ruling elite they say orchestrated the 2006 military coup that removed him from power.

The Red Shirts see the Oxford-educated Abhisit as a symbol of an elite impervious to the plight of Thailand’s poor and claim he took office illegitimately in December 2008 after the military pressured Parliament to vote for him.