Thousands of protesters cheered and chanted into the night in central Bangkok on Thursday (October 15) in a mass show of defiance after the government imposed a state of emergency and banned demonstrations in a bid to end more than three months of protests.

Tens of thousands of Thai protesters cheered and chanted into the night in central Bangkok on Thursday in a mass show of defiance after the government imposed a state of emergency and banned demonstrations in a bid to end more than three months of protests.
As they dispersed at 10pm (15:00 GMT), protesters pledged to return to the same place every day with another rally planned on Friday.
Protesters ignored police appeals to disperse and spilled from the Ratchaprasong Intersection across streets and walkways, their mobile phones shimmering in the night. The location, with its luxury shopping malls and hotels, was the scene of bloodshed in 2010, during more than a decade of violence between supporters and opponents of the Thai establishment.