15 killed in bomb blast in Bangkok

Bomb squad experts Tuesday sifted through the debris of a blast at a Bangkok religious shrine where at least 21 people were killed and scores wounded in an unprecedented attack on the city.

A popular tourist attraction, it often features performances by resident Thai dance troupes, who are hired by worshippers in return for seeing their prayers at the shrine answered.

While bombings of this magnitude are rare in Bangkok, they are more common where Thailand’s Muslim separatist insurgency has been flaring: in the country’s three Muslim-majority provinces in the deep south.

“It was like a meat market”, said Marko Cunningham, a New Zealand paramedic working with a Bangkok ambulance service, who said the blast had left a two-meter-wide (6-foot-) crater.

An electrical circuit that had been part of the bomb was recovered 30m away from the scene, the Bangkok Post said.

“When I got there I was quite shocked at the devastation – the bodies everywhere.the condition of the bodies that had literally been shredded by this powerful bomb“.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Foreigners are among the injured, Maj Gen. Weerachon Sukhontapatipak, a Thai government spokesman, told CNN.

Police spokesman Pol Lt-Gen Prawut Thavornsiri confirmed Tuesday morning that so far 20 people were dead and 125 injured in the blast happened at 6:55 pm Monday.

“It is much clearer who the bombers are, but I can’t reveal right now”, Prawit Wongsuwan said Tuesday.

There are no reports of British casualties.

The defense minister, meanwhile, said officials had no prior intelligence about Monday’s rush-hour bombing of a popular shrine at a hectic intersection. “It was horrific”, Cunningham said.

The government would set up a “war room” to co-ordinate the response to the blast, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said.

Thailand has been riven for a decade by a sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.

An unconfirmed report from a police source stated there might be two more unexploded bombs, indicating that those responsible wanted to cause major damage.

At the scene on Monday evening lay burnt out motorcycles, with rubble from the shrine’s wall and pools of blood on the street.

Thailand has been led by a military junta since a coup in May last year, which overthrew the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra.

Authorities have blamed the “red shirts” for a string of small explosions in Bangkok earlier this year, a charge their leadership has strongly denied. “The thoughts of all Australians are with the injured and the families of those who have lost their lives”, said a press release issued by the department.

“The Australian embassy in Bangkok is in contact with Thai authorities to determine whether Australians have been affected”, a spokesperson said in a statement.

Authorities placed white cloths over human remains at the Ratchaprasong intersection, the same area where a protest that stretched for months was dispersed by the military in 2010.