Australia, the source of just over 800,000 visitors to Thailand in 2015, issued a travel advisory saying Australians should “exercise a high degree of caution”, and warned that “further explosions in any part of Thailand are possible”.
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Hua Hin Police have asked the public to stay in their homes to ensure safety.
“This is not a terrorist attack. It is just local sabotage that is restricted to limited areas and provinces”, national police deputy spokesman Piyapan Pingmuang said in Bangkok. No one has claimed responsibility for the 11 bombings, and the seemingly coordinated attack across five provinces does not match common patterns of violence in the turbulent nation which is now under military rule.
No group has claimed responsibility, though suspicion could fall on insurgents from Muslim-majority provinces in southern Thailand.
“This act has severely hurt the entire Thai country”.
In a televised address, prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the attacks “struck at the hearts of all Thai people”. It gave no further details, and it was unclear which blast was responsible. “Do not retreat or be disheartened”, he added.
Two of the fatalities were from two bombing incidents in the coastal resort town of Hua Hin at 10pm last night and 9 am yesterday, which also left scores including foreign tourists injured. There were 2 more explosions in the same town on Friday morning that killed 1 other person.
Thailand’s Erawan Hotel Group, one of the top five Thai hotel operators with a portfolio that includes two of the targeted resorts – Hua Hin and Phuket – has increased security at its hotels but not yet seen cancellations because of the blasts, group president Kamonwan Wipulakorn told Reuters.
Earlier Thursday, another bomb blew up in the southern province of Trang – full of attractive beaches and tourist island – killing one person and injuring six, according to Thai press reports.
The governor’s comments come after a meeting with military and police advisers at Phuket Provincial Hall.
Two more persons were killed in three blasts in Surat Thani and Trang area.
‘But when it is clearly directed at tourists like this time, that is very shocking.
“The explosions started in the beach city of Hua Hin on Thursday”.
Investigators work at the scene of an explosion in the resort town of Hua Hin, 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.
Thailand has been plagued by political violence, including several bombings, since the populist billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted as prime minister in a 2006 military coup after demonstrations accused him of corruption, abuse of power and insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The 88-year-old is now hospitalized in Bangkok, a source of anxiety for many Thais and a key factor in the kingdom’s past decade of political turmoil.
The blasts erupted on the eve of Queen Sirikit’s 84th birthday, which is also celebrated as Mother’s Day in Thailand.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political expert with Chulalongkorn University, called the attacks a “blatant challenge to the military regime”, which is run by ultra-royalist generals. Chen Namchaisiri, chairman of the FTI, said the business sector remains confident in the government’s ability to be able to control law and order.
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The attacks came days after the junta saw its new constitution draft approved in a referendum that followed a crackdown on critics of the document.
