Click to play videoBangkok: Thailand has been on edge the for the past few weeks with clashes breaking across Bangkok between the Thai Army and Red Shirts leaving at least 35 dead and over 230 injured in the last three days.
The protesting Red Shirts have called for UN-mediated peace talks, but the idea was quickly shot down by the Thailand government, which has repeatedly warned foreign governments not to meddle in its affairs.
The Red Shirts' vast base in the heart of Bangkok is now under siege by troops as talks between the two sides have failed to reach an agreement.
A luxury hotel overlooking the sprawling protest site also came under gunfire in the early hours of Monday, prompting guests to take shelter in the basement. The intense gunbattle went on for more than 20 minutes now.
The government on Sunday threatened to impose a curfew in Bangkok, but then changed its mind.
The area where the Red Shirts are protesting used to be one of the main routes into Bangkok, but now it's one of the most dangerous. The protesters are mostly armed with sling-shots and fireworks. The protesters and as well as the local residents are pinned down in side streets as militant factions of the Red Shirts, dressed in black try to locate army positions.
The army has sniper teams - a spotter and a soldier using an M16 with a telescopic sight to pick their target.
The army is supposed to only shoot armed terrorists posing a threat, but many innocent people are also getting hit. A volunteer was killed trying to help the injured, but it's not clear who pulled the trigger.
In some places the army is outflanked. The government says there are armed elements among the protesters trying to foment civil war.
But inside the Red Shirt protest area, their leaders insist they are peaceful and unarmed.
"No, no! Absolutely no," says Red Shirt leaders.
There are negotiations going on with the government and the moderates are hoping for a ceasefire.
"We would like the UN to represent the peacekeeping force immediately within 24 hours to stop the shooting of the Thai army now," says a Red Shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn.
But the demand was rejected by the government, which blames the Red Shirts for the violence.
A lawyer representing ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is in Bangkok to launch a legal inquiry into the shootings.
"People have to be made to account for the indiscriminate violence, the targeted assassinations, and the illegality of the attack on these people that are here," says Shinawatra lawyer Robert Amsterdam.
The government claims to have sealed off this protest site, but food is still getting in. In a nearby supermarket long queues as everyone, including foreigners, stock up.
"It's like hurricane buying in the states. You don't know if the stores are going to be open tomorrow," says a foreign tourist.
Beyond the perimeter of the protest area, the violence and anarchy is spreading and Thailand's image as a holiday paradise is going up in smoke.
Meanwhile, Major General Khattiya Sawasdipol, also known as Seh Daeng, who was the military adviser to Red Shirts died on Monday. Major General Sawasdipol was shot in the head on Thursday that fueled the latest flare-up in violence in Bangkok between troops and protesters trying to overthrow the government.
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