Tensions grow as Thai protesters gear up for showdown

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Thailand's authorities warned Sunday that opposition efforts to hand power to an unelected regime risked unleashing new violence, as rival protesters prepared for a showdown over the fate of the crippled government.

Opposition demonstrators have delivered an ultimatum for a new leader to be appointed by Monday or they will step up efforts to topple a government clinging to power after premier Yingluck Shinawatra was ousted by the courts.

Fanning tensions, two people were wounded in an explosion, thought to be caused by a grenade, near the government headquarters late on Saturday, officials said.

Yingluck's removal -- for abusing her power with the controversial transfer of a senior security official -- has been denounced by her supporters as part of a "judicial coup".

The kingdom's long-running crisis broadly pits the Shinawatra family and its supporters -- mostly from northern Thailand -- against a royalist establishment with backing in Bangkok and the south.

While the two groups of rival protesters have set up their camps in different parts of the capital, officials are on alert for possible clashes between the two sides.

Worsening violence could increase the chances of the coup-prone army intervening again.