British reporter Andrew Buncombe, Asia correspondent for The Independent newspaper, recounted the panic, fear and confusion in Pathum-wanaram Temple when a hail of gunshots echoed all around following the Army dispersal of the red-shirts rally last Wednesday.
Buncombe, who is usually based in New Delhi, was shot in the temple during the drama.
Speaking from his bed in Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok, he said: "I don't know if this was the worst situation for me but I was scared. Yes, and this is the first time that I have been shot."
The reporter said a number of people moved from the red-shirt stage area to the temple - declared a safe zone - after the protest leaders announced an end to the rally. He had interviewed a few of them.
He said there was shooting at the back of the stage and near the temple. When they sought to leave around 6pm the firing at the temple entrance became quite intense. So people went to find cover and tried to avoid getting shot.
There were two periods of shooting, he said - sometime after 4pm and around 6pm. He saw about 1,000 - 1,500 people inside the temple. Most stayed inside the building but some were on the pavement. Most were sitting on mats.
People were very anxious as red-shirt leaders and the government had told them the temple was a place they could take refuge.
He said he had talked with some people inside the building and sensed that they believed the protest was over. People he spoke to wanted to go home if it was safe, but there was shooting outside the temple.
"There was a lot of fear and a lot of confusion in there and a lot of rumours about whether people should go to [National] Stadium or where they should go.
"I cannot tell you why people chose to go wherever they went. People I spoke to went there because they thought it was going be a safe place."
He said he had not seen any guns. He only saw two or three people with slingshots. Moreover, he did not see the direction that bullets came from when shooting was going on in the street outside. But bullets were definitely coming inside the temple, because people were hit near him and he was also hit.
He was 20 metres inside the temple, near a counter selling souvenirs. "I don't know the direction the bullets came from because I was lying down," he said. "I saw a lot of people were bleeding - three or four people bleeding with bad injuries," he recalled.
There was a small group of medics working inside the wat. One came to help him and one volunteered to carry him to the back of the temple, where they set up a first-aid centre.
He was able to get out via an ambulance at about 10pm. But it was very troubling in the hours before that, he said. People were terrified. They had sought to find safety, but were stuck in a place where they felt vulnerable.
Buncombe wrote about getting shot in the temple while waiting to be evacuated in an ambulance. "I wrote my story that night because I was there for three hours and I couldn't move - there was nothing for me to do as I couldn't help anyone. I couldn't do anything. All I could do is to write my article. So I sat down and wrote it."
He has had few guests while recuperating but said he was happy to receive visitors.