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    Primary Navigation Secondary Navigation Search: Thai police fire tear gas against crowd By SUTIN WANNABOVORN, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 7, 6:25 AM ET BANGKOK, Thailand - Riot police using tear gas clashed Tuesday with several thousand protesters who barricaded Parliament while trying to block Thailand 's new prime minister from delivering his first policy speech to lawmakers. Scores of protesters were injured. Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat opened the parliamentary session after a 90-minute delay but as he spoke chaos escalated outside the building. Anti-government protesters regrouped and barricaded all four entrances to the Parliament, saying their goal was to block top officials from leaving the building. "Victory is near. We are surrounding the building so he cannot leave," one of the protest leaders Somsak Kosaisuk told a cheering crowd outside Parliament, where protesters had chained one of the gates shut. The unrest was the latest twist in a political crisis that has gripped Thailand for six weeks and virtually paralyzed the government. Some protesters were seriously injured in the morning clashes, including one man whose left leg was blown off at the knee. Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the army was "concerned" about the violence against unarmed protesters and that any serious injuries should be investigated. He dismissed speculation of a military intervention to end the unrest in Thailand, where the military has staged 18 coups since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932. Protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy  which is seeking the government's resignation and a major overhaul of the electoral system  have occupied the grounds of the nearby prime minister's office since late August. They expanded their protest overnight by marching to Parliament, and erected barbed wire and tire barricades in an effort to derail the Tuesday parliamentary session. Somchai made no immediate comment about the unrest as he stood before lawmakers reading from a prepared policy text, covering issues from the global financial crisis to global warming, health care and restoring national unity. As he spoke, police briefly fired more tear gas canisters to disperse a group of demonstrators near the Parliament armed with wooden batons and slingshots. The opposition Democracy Party boycotted the speech. Reporters outside Parliament heard gunfire when police moved in after sunrise, but police insisted that only tear gas was being used against the crowd in Bangkok. "We did not use any weapon other than tear gas and shields to clear the path for parliamentarians to go into the building," said deputy Bangkok police chief Maj. Gen. Umnuey Nimmanno. "It is conventional practice in dispersing a crowd. We did not use disproportionate force." Sixty-five people were injured, including seven seriously, said Petpong Kumtonkitjakarn of the Erawan Medical Center. "One of them lost his leg, another was hit with shrapnel in the chest," he said. Queen Sirikit, the wife of the country's revered monarch, donated 100,000 baht (US$2,900) to Bangkok's Vachira Hospital to help treat the injured, said hospital director Wanchai Chareonchoktawee. Somchai was sworn in as prime minister on Sept. 25 but has been forced to run the government from a makeshift office at Bangkok's Don Muang airport. The protest alliance says Somchai is a proxy for ex- Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , who was ousted in 2006 by military leaders who accused him of corruption and who now resides in exile. Somchai is a brother-in-law of Thaksin. When protesters originally took over the grounds of Government House on Aug. 26, their intention was to oust then Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej  whom they also accused of being a puppet of Thaksin. They later said they also opposed his successor, Somchai. Samak was dismissed from office on Sept. 9 by a court decision that found him guilty on a conflict of interest charge . He had accepted pay for hosting a TV show while in office. The alliance claims Thailand 's rural majority  who gave strong election victories to the ruling People's Power Party  is too poorly educated to responsibly choose their representatives and says they are susceptible to vote buying. The protest group wants the country to abandon the system of one-man, one-vote, and instead have a mixed system in which some representatives are chosen by certain professions and social groups. They have not explained how exactly such a system would work or what would make it less susceptible to manipulation. RECOMMEND THIS STORY Recommend It: Average ( Not Rated ) AP AP AP AP AP AP AP AP The Christian Science Monitor AP Australia 7 News - 40 minutes ago AFP - 54 minutes ago Reuters - 1 hour, 22 minutes ago BBC - 1 hour, 44 minutes ago Related Video A riot police officer fires a tear gas shell at anti-government protesters in front of... Slideshow: Related AP News Search Related Searches: SPECIAL TO YAHOO! NEWS First-hand accounts of life in the Middle Kingdom Elsewhere on the Web Time.com: McClatchy Newspapers: ABC News: Yahoo! Autos See the latest Land Rover vehicles on Yahoo! Autos. Add headlines to your personalized My Yahoo! page Asia News - AP NEWS ALERTS Get an alert when there are new stories about: Samak Sundaravej Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra People's Power Party People's Alliance for Democracy new prime minister - - Search: Primary Navigation Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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