A street vendor was killed and about 20 people wounded, some of them tourists from Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands, in two of the bombings Thursday, officials said.
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Phone photo taken on August 11, 2016 shows the scene of the explosions in Hua Hin, Thailand.
It was not clear who was behind the attacks, but police said the violence was not linked to Islamic terrorism.
In the upscale seaside resort city of Hua Hin, where the Thai royal family has its summer palace, four bombs went off between Thursday night and yesterday morning, while two explosions went off near Patong beach in Phuket yesterday. According to the BBC, several blasts were also reported in different locations, such as Surat Thani, Trang and the beach province of Phang Nga, all of which are known tourist hotspots.
Thailand’s economy has sagged since the military seized power in a 2014 coup, but tourism has remained one of the few bright spots, with more than 14 million people visiting in 2016 so far – up from 12.5 million the year before. China, the single biggest source of tourists to Thailand with almost 8 million visitors in 2015, told citizens to avoid crowded areas and pay close attention to security developments.
The United States and other foreign governments issued travel warnings.
No individuals or groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks. Police said earlier that they were investigating all leads, but had ruled out links to global militant groups.
The Telegraph asked if Jon had any idea who was behind the attacks.
Bombings are not uncommon in Thailand’s deep south, where a separatist insurgency has raged, but they are rare in areas frequented by tourists, like Hua Hin and Phuket.
On Saturday, Police Gen. Pongsapat Pongcharoen, a deputy national police chief, told reporters that “we hope we may have some suspects today or tomorrow”.
According to information obtained from local police, the blasts in Hua Hin killed one Thai while injuring 22 tourists.
Worst-hit was the upscale resort of Hua Hin which was rocked by two sets of twin bombs in the past 24 hours – one pair on Thursday night and the second on Friday morning.
Nearly a year ago to the day, 20 people were killed in a bombing of the Erawan Shrine.
A wave of co-ordinated explosions rattled multiple cities across southern Thailand, killing at least four people and wounding dozens more, police said Friday.
Investigators say some of the bombs were detonated by mobile telephone sim cards purchased in Malaysia.
Many shops in the city center closed afterward and normally bustling streets were empty.
The attacks in Hua Hin along with those in Phuket, Surat Thani and Trang have been blamed by police on “local sabotage”. And two bombs exploded outside a market in Phang Nga, damaging two vehicles but causing no casualties. “Everyone was screaming, the glass broken, table broken, confusion”, Andrea Tazzioli, an Italian on vacation from military work in Afghanistan, told the AP from a hospital bed.
The timing of these bombings may be significant, as they occurred on a national holiday celebrating the queen’s birthday.
Seeberg, a 59-year-old Danish tour leader, said that the incident left him feeling angry and helpless, “and I don’t know what to do with my anger”.
Prayuth’s speech was to mark the success of a referendum Sunday that approved his government’s proposed constitution that is supposed to lead to an election next year.
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Shinawatra was unseated in a 2006 coup, and the government of his sister, Yingluck, deposed in the 2014 coup, which brought the junta to power.
