“The explosion occurred at the Rajprasong intersection in the central business district, in front of the Erawan Shrine, a popular tourist destination”.
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The Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok is usually packed with tourists and Thais, making offerings at a statue that is the Thai representation of Brahma, the Hindu god of creation.
Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwong said: “It was a TNT bomb… the people who did it targeted foreigners and to damage tourism and the economy”.
This is a breaking story and we will have more as it develops.
“There were bodies everywhere”, said Marko Cunningham, a New Zealand paramedic working with a Bangkok ambulance service, who said the blast had left a two-metre-wide (6-foot-) crater.
Officers are warning people at the scene that there could be another bomb, and to evacuate the area.
There are unconfirmed reports of a second bomb near the explosion site that is reportedly being deactivated by a bomb squad.
The State Department says it’s too early to say if it is a terrorist attack.
The death toll from a bomb blast in the Thai capital rose to 21 on Tuesday with 123 wounded, police said, with seven tourists from China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore among those killed in the attack. Although there are small numbers of Muslim rebels in the country, fighting against Thai forces, they don’t typically carry out such attacks outside their ethnic Malay region. A rescue agency said 81 people were wounded and media said majority were from China and Taiwan.
The Chinese embassy in Bangkok said the dead include three Chinese nationals, 10 Thai, one Filipino person with the rest yet to be identified. Police have recovered an electronic circuit they believe was part of the device.
The country has also been riven for a decade by intense and sometimes violent rivalry between political factions in Bangkok and elsewhere.
Occasional small blasts have been blamed on one side or the other.
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On February 22, 2015, a 12-year-old boy and a 40-year-old woman were killed and 22 injured in a bomb blast near an anti-government protest site. Dozens of demonstrators were killed by police and the business center was set on fire.
