“This includes those who looked out on the streets, prepared the bomb and those at the site and… those who knew the escape route”.
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The prime suspect has been identified as a foreign national but the suspects were “unlikely” to be members of an worldwide terror group, according to Col. Winthai Suvaree, a spokesman for the ruling military junta.
The open-air Erawan Shrine reopened to the public Wednesday, two days after the explosion tore through the area killing at least 20 people – including foreigners – and wounding more than 120 injured.
He also referred to the man in a yellow Tshirt captured by CCTV cameras and for whom an arrest warrant has been issued, saying the suspect did not use Thai language in communicating with the motorcycle taxi driver he hired.
Twisted iron railings were the only immediate sign of the blast point, which police believe was caused by a bomb made up of 3kg of high explosives.
Police have released a sketch of the suspect, showing a dark-haired man with glasses and light facial hair. A 1 million baht (about RM115,000) reward has been offered to anyone who can give police information leading to his arrest. The deadliest, in 2010, killed more than 90 people in two months and was centered on the same intersection where Monday’s bomb went off. But none of those attacks included a bomb that seemed meant to produce mass casualties.
The incident was the “worst ever in Thailand“, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has said, while vowing to hunt down those responsible.
The man is shown in CCTV footage dumping a backpack and walking away from the scene of the blast minutes before the explosion.
In releasing the sketch, national police chief General Somyot Poompanmoung said the suspect is believed to be a member of a wider network, and not a lone wolf attacker.
“I believe this network has links with people inside Thailand“, he added.
Winthai said there would be heightened security at major tourist destinations, “especially [those popular] with Chinese tourists” to build confidence among visitors.
Officials described the suspect as a “foreign man” Wednesday, but police said they’re not sure he is from another country, the AP reported.
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Security footage shows two men, one wearing a red T-shirt and the other in white, in front of the Erawan Shrine shortly before the main suspect in a yellow T-shirt left a backpack before the blast.
