Clash as protesters march to palace

thousands of protesters marching to deliver a message to King Maha Vajiralongkorn to demand reforms to curb the powers of his monarchy and the removal of the government. 

It was only the second time water cannon had been used in months of largely peaceful protests to call for greater democracy and the departure of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader.

Reuters journalists estimated more than 10,000 protesters marched from Democracy Monument in central Bangkok.

The protesters reached a barricade of buses and barbed wire. Police fired water cannon to stop them pushing forward, but witnesses said some had managed to reach the area known as Sanam Luang - or Royal Field - next to the Grand Palace. Protesters had said they sought to deliver a message to the Royal Household Bureau.

The protesters say the monarchy has helped enable decades of military domination of Thailand, most recently by approving the premiership of Prayuth, who seized power in a 2014 coup and kept it after disputed elections last year.

The protesters seek to put the king more clearly under the constitution, reversing changes he made shortly after taking the throne as well as moves he made to take personal control of the palace fortune and some army units.