BANGKOK, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Under public condemnation, Thailand's government held a press conference Wednesday to explain that it's sorry about Tuesday's clashes between police and anti-government protesters which led to two deaths and some 400 injuries.

    Newly-appointed Government Spokesman Nattawut Saikua said at the news conference that the government and Prime Minister SomchaiWongsawat were sorry about what happened on Tuesday, and that they did not want to see violence or bloodshed.

    He reiterated that the government did not have a strategy to disperse protesters by use of force.

    He explained that police had to carry out their duties to clearthe way for MPs, senators and the cabinet ministers to get into the Parliament compound to attend the PM's scheduled delivery of government policy address on Tuesday morning.

    The session was necessary for the new Somchai-led government, which took office on Sept. 24, to carry out the responsibility of administering the country, said Nattawut.

    Protesters organized by anti-government movement People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) had laid a besiege at the Parliament compound in central Bangkok since Monday evening in an attempt to block the policy address session. Police on Tuesday morning shot tear gas into the crowd to open an access for legislators and ministers to get into and out of the compound before and after thecut-short session.

    Somchai had to sneak out by climbing walls of the compound and to be transported by helicopter to avoid the protesters.

    On Wednesday, the police, who faced harsh criticism by some academic and professional groups, insisted that they only used tear-gas, rather than explosive device as some local media suspected, to disperse the protesters. Instead, they said, some PAD protesters were equipped with fatal weapons.

    Police Deputy Commissioner Maj Gen Amnuay Nimmano said that 20 police officers were injured in clashes and some even sustained wounds from shooting.

    He also said that officials at the Government House, where the PAD protesters have occupied as a major rally site since Aug. 26, had filed a complaint with police that some machine guns and pistols stocked in the Government House had gone missing before the clashes.

    Deputy police spokesman Maj-General Surapol Tuanthong also reiterated that the police did not use any weapon other than tear-gas during Tuesday's riot.

    He said police had found pieces of home-made explosives known as ping-pong bombs, which they believed were carried by the protesters.

    He also said the police would look into police officers' alleged inappropriate actions and the several reported amputation cases, which he said was beyond tear-gas' damage.

    Surapol said initial investigation showed that the first fatal case reported in Tuesday's clashes -- a mid-aged man who died in acar bomb incident outside the Chart Thai Party headquarters was a retired police officer and PAD member from northeastern province Buri Ram. He was identified as Police Major Methee Chatmontri.

    The police suspected that the explosives were being transported for some other use, but that the man had made a mistake that cost his own life.