Bangkok - Thai opposition protesters cut the power to the national police headquarters on Thursday, ignoring a plea by the prime minister to end their rallies after she survived a no confidence vote in parliament.
The nearly one-month-long demonstrations are the biggest since mass protests three years ago which degenerated into the kingdom's worst civil strife in decades with more than 90 people killed and nearly 1 900 wounded.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra received a much-needed boost as lawmakers in the ruling party-dominated lower house overwhelmingly rejected the censure motion against her 297-134.
The motion was filed by the opposition Democrat Party, which alleges widespread corruption in government and accuses Yingluck of acting as a puppet for her brother, the ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Yingluck - who denies the accusations - delivered a televised national address following the confidence vote, urging demonstrators to end their rallies.
“I propose to protesters to stop protesting and leave government offices so the civil service can move forward,” she said.
“The government does not want confrontation and is ready to cooperate with everybody to find a solution,” she added.
But just hours later the demonstrators cut off the electricity supply to the national police headquarters in Bangkok, a senior officer said.
“Now we are running on a generator,” Police Lieutenant General Prawut Thavornsiri told AFP, as about 1,000 protesters gathered outside.
The move also hit the forensic department of a hospital next door although the main facility was unaffected, the hospital director said.
It was unclear how police would respond to the provocative move. But so far they have avoided confrontation with the demonstrators, and the government appears reluctant to call on soldiers to strengthen security.
Protesters are demanding the end of the “Thaksin regime” and want to replace the government with an unelected “people's council” -- a demand Yingluck said was impossible under the constitution.
Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon-turned-politician, remains a hugely divisive figure seven years after he was deposed in 2006 by royalist generals.
He is adored by many of the country's rural and urban working class but hated by many southerners, middle-class Thais and the Bangkok elite, who see him as corrupt and a threat to the monarchy.
The protests have triggered growing international concern, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon the latest world leader to voice alarm.
Ban “is concerned by the rising political tensions in Bangkok”, said his spokesman Martin Nesirky as protests spread beyond the Thai capital.
“The secretary-general calls on all sides to exercise the utmost restraint, refrain from the use of violence and to show full respect for the rule of law and human rights.”
Protesters began marching towards the defence and education ministries on Thursday, a day after entering a major government complex in the north of the capital and forcing the evacuation of the Department of Special Investigations - Thailand's equivalent of the FBI.
Protesters also gathered on Wednesday at about 25 provincial halls mainly in the opposition's southern heartlands - including on the tourist island of Phuket.
A court has issued an arrest warrant for a top protest leader for his role in the ministry seizures.
Yingluck has ruled out the use of force to end the protests, seeking to avoid a repeat of the bloodshed seen in 2010 which deepened the political divide.
One option would be for her to dissolve the lower house and call fresh elections, knowing that pro-Thaksin parties have won every election for more than a decade.
But Yingluck gave no sign on Thursday that she was considering such a move.
The possibility of military intervention also constantly looms over Thailand, which has seen 18 actual or attempted coups since 1932. But so far the army has shown little enthusiasm for getting involved.
The recent protests were sparked by plans by the ruling Puea Thai party to introduce an amnesty that could have allowed the return from self-imposed exile of Thaksin.
The Senate blocked the controversial bill but demonstrators have since broadened their goal and now want to topple the government.
Yingluck on Monday ordered the expansion across Bangkok of the Internal Security Act, which gives authorities additional powers to block routes, impose a curfew, ban gatherings and carry out searches.
An estimated crowd of up to 180 000 people joined an opposition rally on Sunday, but turnout has since fallen sharply. - AFP