Thailand is seeking the help of Interpol to capture the man believed to be responsible for a fatal Bangkok bomb blast this week.
Advertisement
The footage led police to believe the pair may have been the attacker’s accomplices. “I said theoretically they need more than 10 people“, he said.
“I can’t tell everything”, Prawut added cryptically when pressed on the nature of the dispute.
Somyot Poompanmoung said yesterday he believes “several teams” were involved in the preparation and execution of the attack, which killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 120.
“The security agencies have collaborated with intelligence agencies from a lot of countries and have come to the same preliminary conclusion that the incident is unlikely to be linked to global terrorism”, Thai junta spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvaree told reporters.
Amid fraying nerves, officials read assurances about security in English and Chinese and said Chinese tourists were not the direct target of the perpetrators as the Government tries to avoid an economically disastrous collapse in foreign visitor numbers.
A police spokesman said they were now satisfied the men – a Chinese tourist and his Thai guide – were not involved.
But they say they are still confident a bespectacled man in the yellow shirt, described in his arrest warrant as a foreigner is the prime suspect.
The sketch depicted generally ambiguous features that made it hard to determine his ethnicity. Police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri declined to say if the two had been cleared, pending a check on their documents.
Time stamps on the video show the prime suspect, a young man in a yellow T-shirt, left the temple about 15 minutes before the explosion.
As for the bomb victims, he said only 63 are still being hospitalized at different hospitals in Bangkok.
Bangkok has seen politically charged violence in the past decade.
Winthai said that the military government, in power since a coup in May past year, would prosecute any individuals spreading false rumors about the bombings.
The bomb struck during Monday’s rush hour in a popular tourist area in the city’s commercial heart, studded by upscale shopping malls and five-star hotels. “There must be people who scout the route”.
However, investigating authorities are yet to determine who carried out the attack.
A day after the site reopenedc, Thais and foreign tourists are continuing to pray, light candles and laying flowers at the shrine.
Advertisement
There was speculation that the bomb may have been planted by extremists from the Uighur Muslim minority, angered by Thailand’s deportation of more than 100 Uighurs to China in July. It was as though he knew a camera was going to be there.”Prayuth said earlier the attack was Thailand’s problem and should be resolved internally but on Thursday he said it signalled a threat to the whole region”.
