I bet prospective Thailand visitors seeing these pictures from a political meeting of their heads of state who had to be evacuated by helicopters to escape the mob will think twice or more often about their planned vacation in Pattaya.

Yellow shirts, red shirts, blue shirts, they will run out of colours soon. TH has become a joke to the international community. I am surprised how easy the authorities allowed the protestors to over run the hotel, just like with the yellow shirts with the airport siege. It seems that someone is allowing all these events to freely occur

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd returning home after ASEAN stormed by protesters

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is on his way back to Australia after a summit he was to attend in Thailand was stormed by thousands of protesters.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit was postponed after protesters clad in red and black and carrying weapons stormed the venue in Pattaya.

A state of emergency has been declared, according to reports.

A spokesperson for Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Mr Rudd was returning to Australia.

"The Australian Government has been informed by the Government of Thailand that the East Asia Summit has been postponed," the spokesperson said.

"As a result, the Australian Prime Minister is now returning to Australia."

Leaders from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand had been scheduled to attend the summit.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key delayed his travel after news of the protests.

The protesters are calling for the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

A photojournalist based in Thailand reported on Twitter that there had been gunfire.

"2 red shirt protesters have been taken to hospital suffering gunshot wounds in Pattaya," said @photo_journ.

Reporters at the scene said military troops made no attempt to stop the invasion, but there had been clashes between "red shirts" and pro-government rivals.

The protesters said they would occupy the venue until Mr Abhisit stepped down.

Other world leaders were evacuated from the building by helicopter.

Topics to be discussed at the summit had included the global financial crisis and North Korea's recent missile launch.

News.com.au

Apparently the Auslan (Australian Sign Language) sign for Pattaya is:



Moved around in a way as to represent the many umbrellas at the beach...