BANGKOK, Jan 30: Thailand swiftly evacuated hundreds of its nationals from the Cambodian capital on Thursday and downgraded diplomatic relations after deadly protests over alleged comments by a Thai actress.

In Bangkok, Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej stepped into the crisis to ask a group of 1,000 angry Thai protesters outside the Cambodian embassy to disperse. They did so peacefully after singing the royal anthem.

The Thai foreign ministry estimated the damage from the protests at around one billion baht (23.54 million US).

The Cambodian government moved quickly to ease tensions by pledging compensation, signalling a positive response from Bangkok.

“It’s a relief,” Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s secretary-general, Yongyuth Tiyapairat, said of the compensation pledge.

But he added that the Thai government was yet to be informed of it and would wait to find out the details of the offer before commenting further.

One as yet unidentified Thai was killed and at least eight injured when Cambodian protesters stormed the Thai embassy and looted Thai-owned hotels and businesses in Phnom Penh late Wednesday, sparking one of Bangkok’s most serious diplomatic incidents in years.

The Cambodians were angered by alleged comments by popular actress Suvanant Kongying that the country’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex belonged to neighbouring Thailand.

The complex in northwestern Siem Reap province is considered by Cambodians to be the crowning glory of their culture.

Nearly 700 Thai nationals were evacuated from Pochentong airport Thursday in a military operation involving troops and seven C-130 Hercules planes.

Cambodia said late Thursday it had arrested nearly 150 of the attackers. Shinawatra said he wanted the culprits in the embassy attack extradited to face trial in Thailand, where they could face life imprisonment.

“It’s very likely that the perpetrators could stand trial in Thailand because the incident happened on the Thai embassy premises, but it also occurred on Cambodian soil,” Thaksin told reporters.

“It would depend on the cooperation of the Cambodian government on whether they wanted to extradite them here or not, but I personally want them to face trial here.”

Cambodian ambassador to Thailand Ung Sean was summoned to the foreign ministry, where he was handed a protest memorandum and asked to leave the country within 24 hours, Sihasak said.

“This was the strongest diplomatic retaliation measure possible in terms of international relations,” Thaksin said.

King Bhumibol then stepped in to ease tensions, his first intervention in a political crisis for more than a decade, by asking the Thai demonstrators to leave the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok.

The highly-revered king has intervened to defuse only the most serious of political crises during his near six-decade reign.

Security forces, some clad in riot gear, had earlier stood guard over the crowd, whose agitation increased as a photocopied photograph of Cambodian protesters smashing a framed picture of the King was passed around.—AFP