Google car barred by dam protesters in Thailand

Google's Street View project, which has raised privacy concerns in several countries, caused a fracas in northern Thailand when villagers suspected its cameras were surveying for an unwanted dam project.

Google's regional communications manager, Taj Meadows, said the company was aware of the incident in Sa-eab village in Phrae province, in which about 20 residents blocked a Google camera-equipped car.

Google's project takes photos to accompany its Google Earth map programme.

The Manager newspaper said the villagers took the vehicle's driver to a local office to question him, then to a temple where they made him swear on a statue of Buddha that he was not working for the dam project.

The Prachatai news website said the villagers released the driver and later apologised to him and to Google. Sa-eab village, 615 kilometres north of Bangkok, is known for its long-running dam protests by villagers and environmental groups.

"[We] apologise to the official, to Google, as well as to the Thai people," the villagers' representatives wrote. They were "worried … someone was trying to survey the area in disguise".