The two men were seen in a security video standing in front of the prime suspect at the shrine shortly before the bomb exploded Monday evening, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 120 others.
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A sketch of the primary suspect released on Wednesday afternoon presents him as a bespectacled young man whom police have described as “Caucasian, Arab or mixed race”.
Police also said they would take the sketch to a court and ask that an arrest warrant be issued for a man matching the description. It accuses an “unnamed foreigner” of conspiracy to commit “premeditated murder” and weapons offences.
Police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said in a TV interview Wednesday that two other men seen in the CCTV footage-one in red, the other in white-were also suspects in the investigation.
Police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri tweeted that a 1 million baht reward ($28,080) is on offer for information on the perpetrators.
The grainy security video shows the man, wearing a yellow T-shirt and shorts, sitting down on a bench at the shrine, taking off a black backpack and leaving it behind as he stands up and walks away. Experts say the bomb attacks in Thailand could deal a heavy blow to its tourism sector which has seen 15 million foreign arrivals in the first half of 2015.
No group has claimed responsibility.
Gao Yan Ping, from Jiangxi province, China, center, is overcome with emotion at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, after he arrived to claim the body and remains of his daughter and his wife who were killed in Monday’s bombing at the Erawan Shrine, Thursday, August 20, 2015.
The two men left the shrine and were walking down a street when the device went off. They seemed to be spooked and jumped for cover, indicating they weren’t involved in the attack, the paper said, citing anonymous detectives.
Victims’ relatives have been struggling to come to terms with the tragedy, including a Malaysian family that lost four of its members.
The Erawan shrine is also close to Bangkok’s Chinatown, and the Chinese government responded to the attack with a call for Thai authorities to ensure the safety of its citizens in Thailand.
CCTV footage of the scene in Bangkok before the bomb attack on Monday.
The Hindu shrine, popular with tourists and Buddhists, reopened on Wednesday.
“I am confident that there are Thais involved but I am not saying it is just Thais or that there are foreigners”, he said.
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The Bangkok bombing has captivated people across the country, but attacks in southern Thailand have killed more than 6,500 since January 2004, according to Thitinan Pongsudhiral, chairman of the Center for Strategy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
