( CNN ) -- A journalist who was interviewing a key political protest leader in Bangkok said the sniper bullet that struck the man came so close that it `` felt like it grazed my head . '' Describing a chaotic scene on the streets of the Thai capital Thursday night , Thomas Fuller of the International Herald Tribune described to CNN how Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol was shot in the head as he was interviewing the opposition figure . `` I was facing him , he was answering my questions , looking at me and the bullet hit him in the forehead , from what I could tell , '' Fuller told CNN 's Michael Holmes . `` It looks like the bullet came over my head and struck him . I do n't have any way of confirming this beyond what I remember from the scene , but it felt like it grazed my head . '' Thomas Fuller describes scene in Bangkok . Fuller and other journalists were interviewing the general -- better known as Seh Daeng -- in makeshift barricades that protesters have set up in downtown Bangkok . The United Front for Democracy ( UDD ) has turned the posh commercial center of Bangkok into a makeshift fortress , as they continue to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call new elections . The protesters ' barricades appear as a combination `` of 'Mad Max ' and some medieval scene , '' Fuller said . Bamboo pikes and rubber tire barricades have been formed as a makeshift camp by the protesters , Fuller said . iReport : Are you there ? Send your images , video . Fuller said he was just inside the barricades when he was interviewing Seh Daeng . The opposition figure was facing out of the barricades and into Bangkok 's business district of tall office buildings . `` He was standing in the same location for a while when I was talking to him but he was moving around , he was gesticulating , '' Fuller said . `` He was n't standing still , he was bobbing his head . '' Seh Daeng did not appear to be armed or have bodyguards but was dressed in camouflage jacket and a floppy hat , Fuller said . The opposition leader was listed in critical condition from the shooting , his guards said . Violence erupted after Thai authorities set a new deadline to seal off the Bangkok intersection where protesters have gathered by the thousands for the past month . Escalating violence in Bangkok . The government said it has been forced to take action after demonstrators disregarded an ultimatum by Abhisit to vacate the intersection by Wednesday . The Red Shirts support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006 . What are the protests about ? Seh Daeng -- or Red Commander -- is a controversial public figure , even within the protest movement , Fuller said . Some Thai opposition leaders see him as an impediment to a peaceful resolution to the political stalemate that has gripped Thai politics , Fuller said . `` He 's a renegade in all sense , '' Fuller said . `` He 's a renegade from the army , a hardliner within the protest movement . He told me today he thought they ( other opposition leaders ) were being cowardly , and he wanted to carry on . '' More than two dozen civilians and military personnel have died in police-protester clashes in the ongoing unrest .
Reporter was a Thai opposition figure when he was shot in Bangkok . Many Thai protesters has set up a makeshift camp , reporter says . More than two dozen police , military personnel have died from police - protester clashes .