DHAKA: Thailand prime minister Yinlguck Shinawatra returned to her office on Wednesday for the first time in five days but her effort to show that normalcy was returning to Thailand after days of violent protests was upstaged by another rowdy rally at the national police headquarters.

Anti-government protesters have agreed to a one-day truce in honour of the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 86th birthday on Thursday, but vowed to maintain pressure on the government before and after the royal birthday.

Despite pledges to stage a peaceful march on Wednesday, protesters knocked over concrete barriers, cut barbed wire and tried to scale the fences at the police compound in central Bangkok, which is across from some of the capital’s biggest and fanciest shopping malls.

The commotion didn’t last long.

Police opened the gates to let the group of a few hundred protesters inside, and after claiming a symbolic victory the protesters filed out peacefully, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1943 HRS, DEC 04, 2013