On the scene: Bangkok at boiling point

We arrive with camera in tow on the back on motorcycles -- the fastest way into the protest zone.

There is no traffic but the street named for a Thai King, Rama 4, isn't empty. Several piles of tires have been strewn about and set on fire. We watch thick black smoke billowing upwards.

At one end of the street protesters stand behind barricades made built from barbed wire, tires and sharpened bamboo sticks. At the other end Thai troops stand underneath an overpass. In the middle a few young men wheel huge tires into the road.