"Then I was shot in my right shoulder," Khrichana, 32, a former pop singer, told AFP from his hospital bed Sunday in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
After several days of intense clashes between soldiers and "Red Shirt" anti-government protesters, human rights groups have expressed concern over the risk to innocent civilians, journalists and even medical rescue workers.
At least 25 people -- none of them soldiers -- have died in the latest fighting, with more than 200 people wounded. Many of the dead were shot.
"It's like a war," said Chalida Pajaroensuk, director of the People's Empowerment Foundation, a Bangkok non-governmental organisation concerned with human rights.
"No one is safe in this situation."
Khrichana said his friend was among the dead.
"His body is still on the balcony and it cannot be taken away yet because the soldiers did not allow anyone to go in," he said.
Khrichana said he and his friend were shot in the Ratchaprarop district, one of two key battle zones on the perimeter of the Red Shirts' fortified encampment, which extends for several square kilometres (metres).
The military on Saturday declared a "live fire zone" in Ratchaprarop where a foreign witness said he earlier saw troops fire towards a group of Red Shirts advancing with a Thai flag. Three bodies were later seen on the ground.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Thai authorities were on a "slippery slope" towards serious human rights abuses by designating live fire zones.
"It's a small step for soldiers to think 'live fire zone' means 'free fire zone', especially as violence escalates," the group said.
"These are city neighbourhoods, and the government should remember that ordinary people live there, not only protesters."
Under United Nations rules, lethal force must be used only in cases where a person poses an imminent danger to others' lives, Human Rights Watch said.
Facing a military armed with assault rifles, the protesters have fought with homemade weapons including fireworks, rockets, slingshots, and burning tyres.
An AFP photographer saw one demonstrator firing a handgun on Saturday.
Numerous grenades have been fired in recent days and weeks, many at military or government targets, authorities say.
Khrichana said he and three friends were trapped Saturday in his 23rd-floor apartment, unable to go outside because unrest had already erupted in the neighbourhood.
When gunfire began in the late afternoon his friend went on to the balcony to investigate, and was mortally wounded.
Khrichana said he was only grazed on the shoulder.
In the same neighbourhood Saturday, a volunteer emergency rescue worker was shot dead while on duty, a co-worker said.
Boonting Pansila, 25, was attached to the rescue squad at Vajira Hospital, said his colleague, Kasinchai Nguanjinda.
He had been on duty since Friday night and was dispatched to stand by in the Ratchaprarop district, where he was shot on Saturday and died later in hospital, Kasinchai said.
On Friday and Saturday three Thai journalists and one Canadian cameraman were shot and wounded while covering the clashes. All were hit in the legs. The Canadian, Nelson Rand of the France 24 news channel, was also shot in the wrist and torso, his employer said.
"The confusion reigning in various parts of Bangkok does not suffice to explain the shooting injuries sustained by several Thai and foreign journalists since April," said the media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said that despite his sadness over a "large number" of deaths, the operation which began Thursday night to contain protesters inside their encampment would continue.
As part of the operation the military said it would deploy snipers, but army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd denied that "protesters" had been intentionally shot.
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