BANGKOK: Explosions injured almost 30 people in central Bangkok on Sunday during a continuing “shutdown” protest aimed at toppling the Thai government, an emergency centre said.

Twenty-eight people were taken to several hospitals across the city, according to the Erawan Emergency Centre. Protesters said the injuries were caused by two separate blasts at a rally.

Witnesses said the explosions occurred about two minutes apart.

The first blast went off about 100-200 meters (yards) from a stage set up by protesters, and the second went off near a row of vendors selling anti-government T-shirts.

The violence is the latest to hit the city as Thailand's increasingly volatile political crisis drags on.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts Sunday afternoon near Victory Monument, in the north of the city.

Earlier on Saturday a gunman opened fire on anti-government protesters in Thailand's capital, severely wounding one man in the latest violence to hit Bangkok as the country's political standoff drags on, officials said Sunday.

The man was shot in the back before midnight Saturday in Bangkok's Lad Prao district, where protesters have taken over a key intersection.

He underwent surgery at a hospital and was in an intensive care unit on Sunday, according to Bangkok's emergency medical center.

Thai media identified him as a 54-year-old from southern Thailand who was helping guard protesters.

The protesters, who control several small patches of Bangkok, are vying to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government and derail Feb 2 elections she called in a bid to quell the crisis.

Bangkok, a vast city of 12 million people, is calm, but such incidents have occurred nearly every day over the last week, including shooting attacks at protest venues and small explosives hurled at the homes of top protest supporters.