Brits still stranded in Thai chaos

8:48am Tuesday 2nd December 2008

UK tourists stranded in Thailand are hoping extra flights can get them home as the political strife in the country intensifies.

Bangkok's main airport remains closed, leaving some 300,000 tourists trapped, after a Thai court dissolved the ruling party and banned the country's prime minister from politics.

Thailand's Constitutional Court found the People's Power Party and its executive members - including Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat - guilty of electoral fraud.

The ruling followed the latest deadly attack on anti-government protesters who are occupying Bangkok's domestic airport. An explosive device was hurled into a crowd of activists at Don Muang airport last night, killing one person and wounding 22 others.

Triple Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist Chris Hoy is expected to return home on Tuesday after he got a flight out of the country from Phuket, thanks to his links with global parcel delivery company DHL.

Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell said major airlines including Qantas and Emirates were laying on extra flights with UK Government support to help people stranded in Thailand get home.

In a statement released by the Foreign Office, Mr Rammell said: "Several thousand British travellers remain stranded in Bangkok. Our priorities are to ensure their immediate welfare and to find ways of ending their uncertainty and helping them get home.

Photographer Neil Lindsay, 53, from Wadebridge in Cornwall, was among 121 Britons of 1,200 Thai Airways passengers moved by the airline to a hotel near U-Tapao airfield, the Daily Telegraph said.

"We are stuck here without a hope but all the Germans have got home already, the last went on Saturday," Mr Lindsay said.

"We just keep getting bumped. It's quite clear that Brits are well down the pecking order when it comes to getting home. I have not seen any British consular officials, but the Aussies have been here in force and I know they have been using their influence to get their citizens home."