According to the Bangkok Post, someone threw a pipe bomb off a bridge.
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Later Tuesday, Police Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri told The Associated Press that a man seen in security video wearing a yellow T-shirt and carrying a dark-colored backpack was a suspect and believed to be “the bomber”.
Khaosod’s website reported a huge blast rocked the area about a minute after the man left.
The bomb was detonated at about 19:00 local time (12:00 GMT) on Monday when the shrine, and the nearby Ratchaprasong junction, were crowded.
Police and soldiers guarded the site this morning and combed through shattered glass and other debris. It’s a terrible, awful scene and nobody can really understand what it is or why it’s happened.
Del Rosario said the Philippine embassy “is closely coordinating with Thai authorities to verify the reported Filipino casualty”.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, nor has a motive emerged. “We have to find them first”.
Why do people visit the Erawan shrine? “We have suspects. There are not many people”.
A US-based Hindu American Foundation said the attack “is an affront to the pluralistic ethos of Thailand’s diverse society”.
“All I can say now is there has been an explosion in central Bangkok involving a motorcycle bomb”, deputy national police chief Aek Angsananond told Reuters.
David Cameron said he was “deeply saddened” by the death of a British national in the bomb attack on a popular shrine.
Throngs of tourists go there to pray at all hours, lighting incense and offering flowers purchased from rows of stalls set up on the pavement along the shrine. All 438 city schools will remain closed on Tuesday for safety reasons.
The most recent coup in 2014 toppled the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra after months of disruptive street protests.
Thai authorities have not ruled out any group, including elements opposed to the military government, for a bomb blast in Bangkok that killed 22 people, but officials said the bombing did not match tactics used by insurgents in the south.
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Reports said at least 27 people were killed. But none came close to the power of the Erawan Shrine bombing. “I saw there were hundreds of medics, police, fire brigades and looking at the ground trying to figure out what happened and if there were any wounded still in the area”.
