Passengers have spent their second night at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, after protesters shut down it in a major escalation of Thailand's political turmoil.

A foreign tourist rests on his luggage while waiting at a check-in counter at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok early on November 26. [Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP]

Wednesday's flights were all cancelled and at least 6,000 passengers were stranded. Many were bused to hotels, but thousands were forced to sleep with their belongings in the airport.

There was no word on when flights might resume. Tourism makes up 6 percent of Thailand's economy, which grew at its slowest rate in more than three years in the last quarter.

(CCTV November 28, 2008)