Thai protesters drop at embattled PM's Bangkok office after deadly police crackdown

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Anti-government protesters in Bangkok on Wednesday surrounded the temporary office of caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the day after a police crackdown left five dead in the capital's centre.

Suthep Thaugsuban, secretary general of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), led a convoy of 200 cars to the Permanent Secretary of Defence office in northern Bangkok, which Yingluck and the cabinet have been using as a temporary office since protesters closed down Government House in December.

Yingluck and her caretaker cabinet were not there, and the building was heavily guarded by soldiers behind barbed wire. Suthep has vowed to escalate his campaign to force Yingluck to resign following her government's crackdown on his rally sites.  Police on Tuesday attempted to retake the neighbourhood around Government House, resulting in an exchange of fire that left one policeman and four protesters dead and at least 63 people injured, according to the Erawan Emergency Medical Centre.

Suthep said the protesters had been unarmed in Tuesday's clashes, which the government denied.

A total of 15 people have died and more than 700 have been injured in protest-related violence since the PDRC launched its campaign to paralyze Yingluck's government on November 24.

The PDRC is calling for her to step down and for a Senate-appointed prime minister to establish a "people's assembly" to legislate political reforms before the next election.

The movement's main goal is to root out the influence of Yingluck's brother, fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist policies have won his parties every election since 2001.

Thaksin has been living in self-exile since 2008 to avoid a two-year jail sentence on an abuse-of-power conviction.