DHAKA: Thailand’s army chief warned on Monday the country risks ‘collapse’ unless it pulls back from escalating violence after attacks in recent days left three children dead in the kingdom`s worst political unrest since 2010.

Twenty-one people have now been killed and more than 700 wounded in violence linked to almost four months of anti-government demonstrations.

Protesters want to unseat prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and dilute the influence on Thai politics of her billionaire brother Thaksin, a former premier who lives in exile to avoid jail in Thailand for corruption.

A brother and sister, aged four and six respectively, and a 59-year-old woman died after a grenade attack on Sunday afternoon on a busy Bangkok shopping district, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1900 HRS, FEB 24, 2014