Thai police arrest protest leader, retake rally site

BANGKOK - Thai police on Tuesday morning arrested Rawee Mashmadol, an anti-

Thai police start to reclaim rally sites, 2 injured

government protest leader, in an operation to retake rally sites in the capital Bangkok.

The police have succeeded in retaking a rally site on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road,  Bangkok Post reported.

Protesters at the Government House have remained in a standoff with the police, with sandbags and barbed wires set up between the two sides.  

Thailand's anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban on Monday morning led protesters to besiege the Government House to prevent caretaker prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra from returning to work there.

At around 10 am local time, protesters started to build concrete walls to block gates of the Government House.

Chalerm Yoobamrung, caretaker Labor Minister and chief of the government-run Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order, on Sunday said police would be deployed from Monday to reclaim five protest sites in Bangkok from protesters, including the one near the Government House.