Thailand still safe to visit, say NZ officials

New Zealanders living or touring around Thailand should exercise common sense, the New Zealand Ambassador in Thailand, Brook Barrington warned today in the wake of a military coup overnight.

He said New Zealanders, especially those in the capital Bangkok, should exercise "prudence" when moving about.

"Don't go sightseeing around government buildings. If a curfew is imposed -- and there is talk of a curfew -- then it should be respected," he told National Radio.

Mr Barrington said in the last couple of days there had been talk of a mass rally -- and one had been scheduled for tomorrow.

"That may or may not take place, but if it does tourists should not go to those sorts of events. They should just exercise care.

"For those looking to travel to Bangkok we simply don't know enough yet, so keep an eye on the media reports."

There had been rumours in the last few weeks of an impending coup in Thailand, he said.

"Every time a battalion in Bangkok has been moved for routine purposes over the last few weeks the newspapers have said 'Last night there was a possibility of a coup'.

"So it has certainly been unstable over the last few weeks."

Mr Barrington said it had probably come to a head now for two reasons.

The first was that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was out of the country in New York, "which has given people opposed to him some space in which to act unconstitutionally".

The second reason was the country's "general instability".

"This is a caretaker government which is more than 200 days old now and people, institutions -- including the army -- have become impatient I think," Mr Barrington said.

"You also have a situation where a number of groups from the universities to the medical profession have come out quite strongly in the last couple of weeks saying that it is time for Thaksin to stand down.

"So the temperature has been rising and he's now out of the country and it has given it an opportunity to come out in a way that it has."

Mr Barrington said he had not received any formal word from the Thai government about the coup.

"And that I think reflects partly the fact that they themselves don't have a particularly firm handle on what is going on.

"But certainly the diplomatic community has been talking to each other a lot tonight and we've been swapping as much information as we can each get."

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman Brad Tattersfield told NZPA that New Zealanders about to travel to Thailand should not put off their arrangements unless they can do so at no cost.

"But they should obviously monitor the news and developments very closely.

"It's still an unfolding situation over there and we're not quite sure what we're dealing with," he said.

- NZPA