Canadian journalist injured in Thai violence

The brother of a Calgary freelance journalist who was seriously injured in the street fighting in Bangkok sayshe is in intensive care.

Chandler Vandergriftwas hit by shrapnel in the head and torso when government forces stormed into the Red Shirt protesters' sprawling encampment Wednesday in a pre-dawn raid, his brother Brandon told CBC News from his home in India.

Vandergrift has undergone surgery and is listed in serious condition, his brother added.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Department will say only a Canadian citizen has been wounded in Bangkok and is getting consular assistance.

A friend of Vandergrift said he warned the journalist, who studied at the University of Victoria, to stay off the front lines of the civil conflict.

At least five people, including an Italian photographer, were killed in Wednesday's clashes. Dozens more were wounded in the crackdown.

Close-up, street-level images of the violent clashes in Bangkok were posted on Vandergrift's blog as recently as Tuesday.

Victoria resident John Orser, who worked with Vandergrift on a recent documentary project in Thailand, said before he departed Thailand last week, he left his friend with a warning.

"I'd been telling him, 'Chandler, take it easy, don't get into that mix down there on the streets,'" Orser told CBC News on Wednesday morning.

Journalist has been in Thailand for years

Vandergrift is a thoughtful man who has been in Thailand for years working as a policy analyst and a journalist, and knows the conflict well, said Orser. But he thinks Vandergrift ignored his warning to stay out of the civil conflict.

"You know he has that goddamn camera of his and he likes to shoot those 35-millimetre pictures," said Orser, who also suspects Thai security forces are targeting journalists.

"They picked off that general the other day. They shot the Japanese journalist. They shot the French journalist from French TV. Now it's Chandler," he said.

Vandergrift is the second Canadian freelance reporter to be injured in the clashes. Nelson Rand, a Canadian-born reporter working with the France 24 television network, was struck by three bullets while covering anti-government protests in Bangkok last week.

Orser said he plans to fly back to Thailand as soon as he can to learn more about Vandergrift's condition.

Another former Calgarian living in Bangkok told CBC News Wednesday that he has been hearing live gunfire roughly every five minutes.

Chris Stanford,who has worked in Thailand for the past 20 years, has an apartment in what he called the live-fire zone.

"The army is manning a security point just outside of my apartment building. And about half a kilometre further up the road are the protesters," said Stanford. "So I don't get to go out very far."

He said the once-localized fighting has spread across the city.

"I don't think this is the end of anything," Stanford said of Wednesday's government offensive. "It's just spawned a whole mess of new problems for the government."

Stanford added that while there have been army crackdowns before, he hasnever seen anything like this since he moved to Thailand.