TRAVELLERS, BUSINESSMEN and reporters, unable to fly through Bangkok's barricaded airports, have been telling the world about dysfunctional Thailand, including a prediction that al-Qaeda terrorists will be delighted to learn how easy it is to seize two major airports.

Other travellers were desperately plotting escape routes from this southeast Asian country, which offers easy overland border crossings into Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia, where international flights are available.

"Al-Qaeda must be salivating in delight, knowing that with a little willpower, they can take over an airport quite easily and nobody will do anything," the scornful yet well-connected Thailand Jumped The Shark blog said on Friday.

"Shouldn't every major airport, and airline, in the world have a contingency plan for a hostile takeover of an airport?"The protesters "could take hostages," but Thai security forces failed to prevent the massive glass-encased airport being seized.

Hundreds of anti-government protesters, shouting and waving sticks, marched into Bangkok's expensive, sprawling international airport on Tuesday. Facing no resistance, the mob took over the airport while it was packed with thousands of travellers.

But in a separate development, as many as 46 people have been injured in a grenade explosion inside an opposition-occupied government building in Bangkok.

Protesters' control over Suvarnabhumi International, and Bangkok's smaller, mostly domestic Don Muang airport, "turns Thailand into a banana republic," Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk wrote in Friday's Nation, an English-language newspaper. Pravit's column was headlined Held Hostage, because he was trapped in Seoul, South Korea, unable to flyto Bangkok.

Other newspapers, blogs and media echoed similar woes, plus harsh analysis of Thailand's paralysis.

Adding to the dangerous stalemate, Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat spent Friday self-exiled 350 miles north of Bangkok, hiding from Thailand's army. The prime minister feared powerful army chief general Anupong Paojinda, or other army officers, might somehow neutralise him during a coup.

"Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat will remain in Chiang Mai for the time being, as the army situation is unsettled," government deputy spokeswoman Suparat Nakbunnam told reporters on Friday.

Appearing nervous, the soft-spoken, slender Somchai said in a nationwide televised broadcast on Friday that "security forces will use peaceful means" to clear both airports soon.

Somchai imposed a "state of emergency" on the two airports on Thursday. He said the police, navy and air force would evict the airport's mobs.

The prime minister did not include the army in his plan to clear the airports, apparently worried they would not follow orders.

The protest leaders "will never negotiate with police," boasted the movement's leading figure, Sondhi Limthongkul, during a rally on Friday at Government House - the office complex that has been occupied by the same protesters since August.

The protesters call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), but they oppose democratic elections and want to weaken Thailand's democracy by appointing most politicians.

On Friday, the prime minister demoted Thailand's national police chief, General Phatcharawat Wongsuwan, apparently because police failed to solve the escalating crisis.

The protesters inside Bangkok's international airport have strutted and yelled, but remained mostly peaceful throughout Friday.

They camped in its gorgeous, air-conditioned lounges alongside the few remaining travellers, who slept on the floor and in chairs. Most travellers, and virtually all tourists, shifted to hotels.

Many of the protesters appear to be middle-class men, women and children who wave noisy plastic "hand clappers," giggle, sing, eat, nap and take souvenir photographs of each other.

On the airport's perimeter, however, tough men brandishing wooden clubs, thick metal pipes, slingshots and other weapons scan the nearby highway to see who is approaching.

They barricaded the airport's highway entrances with parked vehicles, stacks of boxes and baggage carts, and debris. Since Tuesday, they were able to freely supply the hundreds of protesters inside with food, water, cooking equipment, medicine and other items, brought in by vehicles which the authorities allowed through.

Belatedly, on Friday night, dozens of police armed with M-16 assault rifles arrived at a main road leading into the airport, and set up road blocks to prevent more vehicles from entering. About 200 more police, armed with wooden clubs and riot shields, set up near the airport's entrance on Friday, parking large trucks nearby.

In a reverse class war, the PAD are a minority of Bangkok's elite, businessmen, the middle classes and others. Their lopsided urban fight began a few years ago, during former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's elected administration.

They rallied in the streets until the military agreed with their demands and staged a bloodless coup in September 2006, ousting Thaksin.

After a lacklustre 15-month regime, the coup leaders allowed an election, but were stunned when most Thais voted for Thaksin's allies. After one pro-Thaksin prime minister stepped down, because of a conflict of interest, Somchai became premier last September.

The PAD demand the resignation of Somchai, who is Thaksin's brother-in-law. They also demand all of Thaksin's allies be barred from politics.