God's Army storms Thai hospital, takes 700 hostage

RATCHABURI, Thailand, Jan 24: Around 30 people bolted for freedom today from buildings in the hospital complex seized by dissident Myanmar gunmen, witnesses said, reports AFP.

The group of mostly middle-aged hostages had been hiding in a building in the hospital undetected by the gunmen, television reports said.

They fled down an alley way as Thai police armed with rifles gave them cover, television reports said.

Police in pickup trucks then took them away from the hospital at high speed.

The gunmen earlier released 10 members of staff from the hospital where Thai officials say around 700 people are being held hostage.

Officials said ambulances were standing by in case more hostages were freed.

A middle-aged woman was later taken away from the hospital by plain clothes police but it was not clear if she had been held hostage.

Heavily armed guerrillas from Myanmar dissident group God's Army today stormed a Thai hospital and took around 700 patients and staff hostage.

Up to 20 fighters from the ethnic-Karen militia, which is led by two twin boys, stormed the hospital in the town of Ratchaburi, 123 km west of Bangkok in the early morning.

Seven hours into the drama, 10 elderly staff were released from the hospital and whisked away in a van.

A middle-aged woman was led away from the sprawling network of hospital buildings earlier but it was not clear if she had been a hostage.

Thai Army commander General Surayudh Chulanont told reporters the gunmen warned Thai forces to keep away from the hospital and to stop firing mortars at their group along the border.

"We have agreed to these two last conditions," he said.

The guerrillas also called on Thailand to pressure Myanmar to halt an offensive against them and asked for medical treatment for injured comrades, officials said.

Paveena Moonbutr, 21, a nurse trapped inside the hospital told reporters on her mobile phone that the gunmen were armed with M-16 assault rifles and had rigged up remote control bombs around the building.

"I saw it with my own eyes. I saw a big blue public bus drive into the front of the hospital and three to four gunmen in uniform and some others jumped out," she said.

She said around 700 people were being held hostage in the hospital, a figure confirmed by the health ministry.

"The deputy permanent secretary of the health ministry said there are around seven hundred people in the hospital," a health ministry official told AFP.

Thai police volunteer Chantas Tilokavichai told AFP the fighters had rigged up a bomb packed with ball bearings at the entrance to the hospital and had threatened to detonate it if Thai forces tried to oust them.