Opponents of the Thai government, who are known for the red shirts they wearThomas Fuller reports from Bangkok. to protests, poured buckets of their own blood under the gates of the prime minister’s office on Tuesday, as my colleague

The blood was not shed but had been carefully drawn from the arms of protesters by medical technicians before being dumped at the feet of police officers guarding the current prime minister from the crowd of Red Shirts, who support Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister who was deposed in a coup in 2006.

The Bangkok Post reported that the antigovernment protesters, who call themselves  The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, claimed to have donated more than 600 pints of their blood to the ritual.

This video report from The Associated Press shows leaders of the protest movement giving blood and the buckets being emptied:

As Mr. Fuller’s report notes, it is not clear if the protest will bring any closer the fresh elections the Red Shirts want, but the symbolic spilling of blood did seem to cause one casualty: “A soldier in full riot gear fainted and was taken away by his comrades.”

The Bangkok Post reports that protest leaders said that they plan to enact a similar ritual on Wednesday at the prime minister’s residence.

The Lede- NY Times