Posted on December 03, 2008 by Fiona Hilliard

Thousands of anti-government protesters ebbed away from Bangkok’s international airport today in buses and pick-up trucks, ending an eight-day siege that stranded hundreds of thousands of foreign travellers in Thailand. 

The lifting of the blockade comes after a court disbanded the governing party and disqualified the prime minister Somchai Wongsawat from office for electoral fraud.

The first passsenger flight to Suvarnabhumi International airport in more than a week arrived today, bringing travellers from the resort island of Phuket. 

The country’s airport authority warned that it would be several days however before the arrival of the first international flight, though normal flights are expected to resume soon to take 230,000 trapped tourists home.