Bangkok - Thailand's King Bhumipol Adulyadej was released from hospital Friday, as the kingdom breathed a collective sigh of relief 16 days after he went in for corrective spinal surgery.
Jubilant throngs of well-wishers wept, sang and shouted 'Long Live the King' as he was wheeled down a ramp out of Bangkok's Sririraj Hospital.
The 78-year-old monarch was admitted on July 20 for an operation to treat a lumbar spinal stenosis, a degenerative narrowing of the spinal canal, which occurs naturally among the elderly.
Throughout the kingdom, Thais had maintained vigils praying for the health and recovery their much-revered sovereign, the world's longest-reigning monarch who completed 60 years on the throne in June.
Much of daily life in Bangkok came to a sudden standstill Friday afternoon as people poured onto the streets or sat glued in front of television sets to watch live coverage of the king's emergence.
Adoring subjects clad in yellow carried portraits of the monarch and waved yellow flags - the colour associated with the royalty by virtue of Bhumipol's day of birth.
The king has few direct governmental powers in the constitutional monarchy, but his moral authority is unquestioned, particularly in a year when extreme political uncertainty has gripped the country.
The Royal Household Bureau said the king had begun walking and was gaining weight, and would spend his rehabilitation period at the royal residence in Bangkok.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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