AP has the story:

Thai protesters poured several jugs of their own blood at the front gate of the government headquarters and outside the ruling party’s offices Tuesday in a symbolic sacrifice to press their demands for new elections.

Thousands of red-shirted demonstrators formed long lines to have their blood drawn by nurses, a day after their leaders vowed to collect 1 million cubic centimeters of blood — 264 gallons (1,000 liters) — to spill at Government House and other key locations.

A few teaspoons of blood were drawn from the veins of each volunteer and then transferred into dozens of large plastic water containers that were passed overhead through the crowd of cheering protesters before being delivered to Government House, the prime minister’s office. Riot police allowed protest leaders to approach the white iron front gate and pour out the blood, which oozed under the gate as national television broadcast the images live.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has not entered his office at Government House since the protests started on Friday.

“The blood of the common people is mixing together to fight for democracy,” Nattawut Saikua, one of the protest leaders, told cheering supporters. “When Abhisit works in his office, he will be reminded that he is sitting on the people’s blood.”

As many as 100,000 Red Shirt protesters converged Sunday on the Thai capital to demand that Abhisit agree to dissolve parliament by midday Monday. Abhisit refused and blanketed the capital with security, but said his government was open to listening to what else the protesters had to say.

The Red Shirts include supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and other activists who oppose the 2006 military coup that ousted him for alleged corruption and abuse of power. They believe Abhisit came to power illegitimately with the connivance of the military and other parts of the traditional ruling class who were alarmed by Thaksin’s popularity.

Minutes after the blood was spilled Tuesday, a medical cleanup team provided by the government — wearing white coats, face masks and rubber gloves — hosed down the site. Health authorities had warned that the protest was unhygienic and risked spreading disease if infected blood splashed healthy bystanders.

Hundreds of protesters then marched and rode pickup trucks and motorcycles to the nearby ruling Democrat Party headquarters and splashed several more jugs of blood on the pavement outside. Some tried to push their way past riot police but eventually dispersed.

Protest leaders also threatened to spill blood outside Abhisit’s home in an upscale Bangkok residential neighborhood if their demands were not met.

A protest leader, Weng Tochirakarn, said they had collected 500,000 cubic centimeters of blood — half of their goal — from 50,000 protesters.

Government spokesman Panitan Watanayagorn said authorities will allow the protest as long as it remains peaceful.

“If they want to throw it and have a photo op and have us clean it up later, I think it’s fine,” Panitan told a briefing of foreign media. He said health authorities were looking into whether “throwing blood on the streets violates health measures.”

BP: As you see the government is taking the sensible option of just letting the red shirts be.

For photos of the red shirts blood spilling, see Newley.

Some snippets from other stories, SMH:

But the faithful who remained, many of whom had travelled hundreds of kilometres to call for the Prime Minister’s resignation, queued for hours to donate blood in makeshift medical tents.

“Our blood is together. We are all united, our voices speak together. We want democracy,” one of the first donors, Dai Yongsiripat, told the Herald.

Al Jazeera‘s correspondent in a blog posting:

But it was the sight of the leaders of the organisation pouring the human blood that could turn a lot of people away from supporting their cause.

I understand the symbolism they were trying to create, but some people may see it as a self indulgent act that had little chance of forcing political change.

It will create headlines around the world. But not necessarily headlines the Red Shirts need.

BP: Think many people will disagree with the tactic used as it looks silly and pointless, but to paraphrase one of the taxi drivers that BP asked this evening, who first said that they should have donated the blood to a hospital and that he disagreed with what they did, he then added it didn’t affect him unlike when the PAD shutdown the airport and his income dropped with less tourists. Likewise with the silent majority, many will look on it negatively in the short-term, but as it doesn’t affect them on its own it won’t mean much in the long-term.

NYT:

Critics derided the action as a repellent publicity stunt; a government spokesman called it a “photo op.” But the protesters said they were desperate to show their anger at a government that they consider illegitimate.

“To make a monk bleed is one of the worst sins,” said Phol Chanthasaro, a monk in orange robes who stood at the gates of Government House. “I want the government to understand right and wrong.”

The Telegraph:

“I did this to show the spirit of Thai people fighting injustice,” said Chuleeporn Ruangsinprasert, 52, a university worker. “This is special, it is coming from my heart. I want to give my blood for society so we are no longer controlled by the ‘elites’ who have all the power.”

The “red shirt” leaders explained that Ruangsinprasert’s donation and that of others was a powerful example of the dedication of the masses to pressure the government into calling fresh elections 20 months before the end of its term.

“The blood of the common people is mixing together to fight for democracy,” Nattawut Saikua, one of the protest leaders told cheering supporters. “When Abhisit works in his office, he will be reminded that he is sitting on the people’s blood.”

BBC:

This has been another show of strength. The protesters have not gone away, although there aren’t as many of them on the streets as there were on Sunday. It is now mid-week and some people have had to go back to their jobs – but many people here have come great distances. So one of the big questions now is how long the red-shirt movement can keep this going.

But for three days they have managed to get a large crowd at specific spots at an appointed hour and carry out a symbolic protest. No-one is backing down, there has been no shifting in positions at all. The red-shirts say they are still demanding that the government dissolve parliament and call fresh elections; the government is saying it will not bow to that pressure. It really has become a test of wills now.

BP: The yellow shirts were only successful in forcing the court to issue its ruling quickly to dissolve PPP once the PAD seized the airport. Unless the red shirts want to emulate the PAD, they are mainly limited to stunts to gain attention, but not all news is good news. So where to now for the red shirts? They can’t stay in their current location forever. So far they have been fairly organized when moving around the city to only occupy two out of three or two out of one lanes on the road so allowing traffic to flow – helped that many people weren’t working on Monday and to a lesser extent Tuesday. A long protest will just annoy people who live nearby and who are affected by the ongoing protests. That and the cost of the guards, the logistics of the protest, stage etc adds up. Sondhi L of the PAD has freely admitted spending one million baht a day on the PAD protests – well that is what he admits and other estimate it cost more than that. Continuing on indefinitely would be very expensive so what will the UDD exit strategy be? What other stunts will we have?