Tourist Shane Brett told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. from his hotel room in Hua Hin that there was panic after the first explosion, which police said killed one Thai woman and wounded about 20 others, half of them foreigners. Police said at least four people were killed and dozens wounded, including 11 foreigners.
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In this Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, photo, the injured are helped after a bomb blast in the southern resort city of Hua Hin, 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Bangkok, Thailand.
Thai police have said the bombings were acts of “local sabotage” and not the work of either worldwide terrorists or the southern insurgents. Thai authorities said that bombing was revenge by a people-smuggling gang whose activities were disrupted by a crackdown, but analysts suspect it might have been the work of Uighur separatists angry that Thailand forcibly repatriated more than 100 Uighurs to China.
The United States, Britain, Australia and several other countries issued travel warnings to their nationals.
The most devastating of the latest explosions occurred in Hua Hin on a busy street filled with bars and restaurants.
In the normally peaceful resort town of Hua Hin, blood-spattered tourists were treated by rescue workers as forensic teams picked through the rubble, with police scrambling to reassure visitors the situation was under control. Four are from Germany, three from the Netherlands, two from Italy and one from Austria, according to police.
On Friday morning two bombs went off in Phuket, one at Loma beach which injured one person and the other near a police traffic booth where no one was hurt. Two small bombs exploded Thursday night in Thailand’s popular seaside resort town of Hua Hin, leaving at least. Mr Don Pathan, a security analyst based in southern Thailand, said that the latest attacks didn’t seem to fit the militants’ traditional pattern of operations, but that if they were responsible, “it would definitely be a game changer” that could herald a new chapter in the conflict.
“I can assure you that this is not a terrorist attack or the expansion of militants from the three southernmost province”, deputy police commissioner Ponsapat Pongcharoen told reporters.
Earlier Thursday, another bomb blew up in the southern province of Trang, killing one person and injuring six, according to Thai press reports. The blast followed a series of two explosions in Hua Hin Thursday even.
He said it was unclear who carried them out and that the government would do its best to investigate.
Speaking later at a hospital, he said he fell down and saw people “screaming, the glass broken, table broken, confusion”.
In the series of bomb blasts in the southern provinces of Thailand, mobile phones were used as tools to activate (detonate) the homemade bombs (improvised explosive device IED).
In Surat Thani, two explosions went off within half an hour, both at police stations. “Thailand solves problems very quickly and always bounces back”.
The blasts erupted on the eve of Queen Sirikit’s 84th birthday, also celebrated as Mother’s Day in Thailand.
Thaksin’s ouster set off sometimes bloody battles for power between his supporters and opponents, who include the military.
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At last Sunday’s referendum voters in Thaksin’s northeast stronghold voted to reject the constitution, which opponents of the junta said would entrench the military’s power and deepen divisions. The government of his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who became prime minister in 2011, was ousted in the country’s last coup in 2014. The junta has repeatedly said that defending the monarchy is a top priority, and the army and its allies are keen to ensure a smooth succession for ailing 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is the world’s longest reigning monarch.
