DFA verifying Pinoy’s death in Bangkok attack

Twelve victims died at the scene, and six others died later in the hospital, officials said.

Australian John Murray and his girlfriend Leify Porter were also on an overhead walkway and had paused to peer from above into the shrine. Gen. Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, a spokesman for Thailand’s ruling junta.

At least two people from China and one from the Philippines were among the dead, a tourist police officer said.

The State Department says it’s too early to say if it is a terrorist attack.

Debris lies on the pavement after a large explosion at the popular Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Monday, August 17, 2015. “There might be another bomb in the area”.

He said: “Whoever planted this bomb is cruel and aimed to kill”.

“Suddenly there was a big boom, and the whole room just shook, like someone dropped a wrecking ball on top of our ceiling”, said Pim Niyomwan, an English instructor working on the eighth floor of the building right next to the shrine.

Despite occasional explosions at times of political unrest, large-scale bombings are nearly unknown in the capital.

As at 9.30pm local time, 82 people were confirmed injured, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Erawan Emergency Medical Services Centre (EMS).

He said: “It was like a massacre – there were body parts everywhere”. He estimated that several hundred military and police officials, some of them using dogs, were scouring the scene for more bombs. We haven’t ruled out any motive.

The Thai Prime Minister said authorities were looking for a male “suspect” seen on CCTV footage near the site of the blast.

The police have not officially stated whether they believe the bomb had a specific target.

The explosion took place at the Rajprasong intersection, which was the center of many contentious political demonstrations in recent years.

As they reportedly walked over the overhead walkway, “a very loud explosion and the glass lining the closed-in walkway shook and nearly buckled from the shockwave of the blast”. “The type of bomb used is also not in keeping with the south”, Royal Thai Army chief and deputy defense minister General Udomdej Sitabutr said in a televised interview. Four major roads and the above-ground metro rail converge here, and high-rise hotels and malls line the street. The city’s Skytrain rumbles almost overhead. Although Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, it has enormous Hindu influence on its religious practices and language. Some of the dead are foreigners.

The iron grills surrounding the gilded shrine of Phra Phrom as Lord Brahma is known in Thai, just in front of the Hyatt Hotel, were mangled.

In fact, it was so popular that when it was defaced in March 2006 by a man with a hammer, he was beaten to death by bystanders.