Army takes charge

Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, national army chief and director of the newly established Peace and Order Maintaining Command (POMC), declared martial law across Thailand in a national television broadcast on Tuesday morning with an aim to "restore peace and order for people for all sides". Gen Prayuth stressed that the move was not a coup, with the caretaker government still in charge of tasks unrelated to security. Martial law grants the military powers to curb many civil rights such as the power to search anyone or any place and the power to detain anyone for seven days without due process. (Video by Chumporn Sangvilert & Nattawat Watanasuwan)