Bangkok bomb: clean up operation begins after devastating blast

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has said that Monday’s bomb attack on the capital city Bangkok was the “worst ever attack” on his country.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha, said the suspect had been seen on CCTV footage near the blast site.

Royal Thai Army chief and deputy defence minister General Udomdej Sitabutr said: “This does not match with incidents in southern Thailand”. “They aim to destroy tourism, economy, our country”.

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

The explosives were planted in motorbikes by the attackers and aimed at taking lives, Thai national police said.

Update as of 6:06 a.m. EDT: A Thai official identified a man wearing a yellow T-shirt and carrying a backpack as a suspect in Monday’s bombing at a popular shrine in downtown Bangkok that killed at least 21 people, according to the Associated Press.

The blast happened in a busy area but heavy rain about half an hour before may have meant fewer people were out, Crawford said.

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.

“We ran down the stairs, we saw people running everywhere, it was chaos”.

Police said the bomb was made from a pipe wrapped in cloth. Three Chinese citizens were among the dead, the official Xinhua news agency said. “It was horrific”, Cunningham told Reuters, adding that people several hundred metres away had been wounded.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the blast.

At least one of the dead is believed to have been a guest of a hotel near the blast.

Investigations continue at the Erawan Shrine the morning after an… Gen. Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, a spokesman for Thailand’s ruling junta. “Our thoughts are with the people of Thailand at this time of shock and grief”, said a statement by the spokesperson for the European External Action Service.

It’s unknown who carried out the attack and Thailand’s capital has been relatively peaceful since a military coup ousted a civilian government in May past year.

They were also initially blamed by authorities for a vehicle bomb on the resort island of Koh Samui earlier this year, but police were later forced to backtrack and subsequently blamed insurgents for that attack.