Phnom Penh - A protest march through the Cambodian capital swelled into a major show of opposition to the government yesterday as thousands of people took to the streets despite violence earlier in the day.
A march by a few dozen young people in the middle of the day snowballed through the afternoon into a procession of about 10,000 people. Many shopkeepers and passers-by clapped and cheered as the crowd snaked its way through the city chanting anti-government slogans.
Police kept their distance until 5.00 p.m. (10 a.m. GMT), when hundreds of riot police moved in when the march was outside the river-front royal palace. There was sporadic shooting in the early evening as police broke up crowds but no reports of casualties.