Bangkok: Declaring victory, thousands of anti-government protesters in Thailand today ended their siege of country's two main airports allowing landing of the first international flight in eight days, bringing relief to over three lakh stranded passengers including Indians.

Thousands of protesters came out of the Suvarnabhumi international airport in cars and trucks ending the siege prompted by the decision of country's Constitutional Court which dissolved the three parties of the ruling coalition for committing electoral fraud and barred the prime minister Somchai Wongsawat for five years from active politics.

Similar scenes were witnessed at the domestic Don Muang airport which was also held by the protesters.

The departure of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) activists from the two airports ended the country's immediate crisis. The siege had severed Thailand's air links to the outside world for a week, and stranded more than 300,000 tourists.

The airport today welcomed its first commercial airliner from Thai Airways from the resort island of Phuket at 1245 IST. Six Thai Airways flights were scheduled to leave Suvarnabhumi later today for New Delhi, Tokyo, Sydney, Frankfurt, Copenhagen and Seoul.

There was jubilation all around after the end of the siege with taxi drivers and Thai Airport staff welcoming the arrival of passengers from the flight.

A meeting among the three ousted parties today endorsed Deputy Prime Minister Chaowarat Chandeerakul as the caretaker prime minister.

Members of the three parties who were not barred from politics by the Constitutional Court are likely to form new parties paving the way for an alliance.

Source : PTI