This August 17, 2015, image, released by Royal Thai Police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri shows a man wearing a yellow T-shirt near the Erawan Shrine before an explosion occurred in Bangkok, Thailand.
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Thai police say the prime suspect in the deadly bombing of a Bangkok religious shrine was overheard speaking a foreign language other than English.
A motorbike taxi driver who gave his name as Kasem said he picked up a man matching the main suspect’s description near the shrine after the bomb exploded in an interview broadcast by Thai Channel 3, the Bangkok Post reported.
The country’s top officers told reporters the large network included those who kept look-out, people who prepared the bomb and those who planted it.
Authorities say they are searching for a foreigner and at least two other men suspected of attack on popular shrine.
Police are applying for a warrant of arrest for a man suspected to have set off the bomb blast in the business district of Ratchaprasong here on Monday evening.
Prawut also said that two other men seen in the grainy CCTV footage were being sought.
“No further information is known about the suspect, or the reasons for the bombing, which Thai Prime Minister has described as the “worst attack on Thai soil”.
The men, in red and white T-shirts, rose from a bench shortly before the main suspect, in yellow, sat down and left behind his backpack.
The Hindu shrine, which was the scene of carnage after a devastating blast on Monday night, reopened yesterday.
Police on Thursday doubled the reward for clues leading to the suspect’s arrest to 2 million baht, or $56,000, Somyot said.
A funeral was held on Wednesday for 45-year-old Waraporn Changtam, one of the victims of the bombing.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the bombing.
Somyot Poompanmoung said the suspect “looks like a foreigner” but “might have been in a disguise and wearing a fake nose” to hide his identity.
Chinese Embassy in Bangkok said on Wednesday that six Chinese nationals, including four from the mainland and two from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, have killed in the blast.
But there’s been little evidence of worldwide terrorist organizations operating in Thailand, and notably, no group has yet claimed reasonability for the Bangkok attack.
Police also said that the attack was carefully planned by a network of more than 10 people.
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Thailand has experienced a near-decade long political crisis that has seen endless rounds of street violence, but never anything on the scale of Monday’s attack.
