“The bomb aimed at killing as many people as possible as the shrine is crowded at around 6 to 7 pm”, police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told AFP.
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A BELFAST woman on holiday in Bangkok last night described the scene of a bomb blast which killed 19 people was “chaotic”.
The man slips out of the large backpack and strolls off, leaving the backpack behind on a low bench, among tourists and other shrine visitors. Different cameras track him as heads away from the scene down the busy streets, all the time clutching a plastic bag as he walks, glancing frequently at his phone.
Meanwhile, another explosion today was caught on CCTV footage.
The second explosive device, possibly a grenade, was thrown on Tuesday from the Taksin Bridge, which detonated near the Sathorn Pier after falling into the Chao Phraya River below.
Officials have not blamed any group for the bombing at the Erawan shrine, which the government called a bid to destroy the economy. He said there were “still anti-government groups out there”, although he did not elaborate.
The site of the explosion has been cordoned off by the police. Thai stocks fell as much as 3 per cent.
Dozens of people were injured, and one police official said many foreigners were among the casualties.
Prawit said this morning that investigators are getting closer to determining who set off the bomb, though he did not give further details.
Thailand forcibly returned 109 Uygurs to China last month.
Critics say the draft is undemocratic and intended to help the military secure power and limit the influence of elected politicians.
A US-based Hindu American Foundation said the attack “is an affront to the pluralistic ethos of Thailand’s diverse society”.
The shrine, a tourist landmark also popular with Thais, is located at the Rajprasong intersection, the site of many contentious political demonstrations in recent years and the centre of one of Bangkok’s main shopping districts.
As dawn broke, Thais expressed fear about more potential violence in the coming days. They include two Hongkongers, three Chinese nationals, a Malaysian couple, two Indonesians, a Singaporean and a Filipino.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday, August 18, confirmed that a Filipina was injured in the explosion in Bangkok that killed at least 20 people.
Authorities have blamed them for a string of small explosions in Bangkok earlier this year, a charge their leadership has strongly denied.
Royal Thai Army chief and deputy defence minister General Udomdej Sitabutr said: “This does not match with incidents in southern Thailand“.
Letters of condolences would be sent to leaders of countries whose citizens were killed or injured, he said. “Planting a bomb there means they want to see a lot of dead people”.
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It accounts for about 10 percent of the economy and the government had been banking on record arrivals this year following a sharp fall in 2014 because of protests and the coup.
