Man carrying backpack is Bangkok bomber — Police tell AP

Twenty-two people were killed and 123 injured in yesterday’s blast at the Ratchaprasong intersection.

The recent depreciation of the yuan will also start to trim tourist arrivals from China, said Nomura analysts, noting that the Chinese comprise a hefty 27 per cent of Thailand’s total tourist arrivals.

Assistant national police chief Prawut Thawornsiri said an improvised pipe bomb was thrown from Taksin Bridge, but hit a pillar and bounced into a canal where it detonated harmlessly. Another video taken from a vehicle dashboard camera showed a huge explosion.

Some 125 people were injured in the shrine blast. “We have suspects. There are not many people”.

Chinese tourists are the biggest group of foreign visitors to Thailand. The Hong Kong government raised its travel alert for Bangkok to “red”, urging its citizens to avoid nonessential trips to Thailand. Local residents offered prayers, incense and flowers at the shrine at one of the capital’s busiest intersections.

But Soon Un Tour, a Bangkok-based agency that deals with clients from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China, said it had received no cancellations.

He walks calmly into the tourist attraction with a backpack and then sits down.

Police Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri later told the Associated Press: “The yellow shirt guy is not just the suspect”.

The Erawan Shrine, right, and Rajprasong intersection remains closed in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, August 18, 2015, as investigations continue the morning after an explosion.

Footage taken from a different angle shows the man, with shaggy, black hair and wearing what appear to be wrist bands, leaving the temple and heading towards the upscale Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel, just yards away.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha speaks to reporters in Bangkok, Tuesday, August 18, 2015.

Prayuth also asked that citizens remain vigilant to any irregular activities.

Authorities have blamed them for a string of small explosions in Bangkok earlier this year, a charge their leadership has strongly denied.

Police Senior Sgt. Maj.

Meanwhile, police said there was an explosion Tuesday at a ferry pier in the capital. “There is no injury”, he says.

“It was chaos, people were running around and there were police and ambulances everywhere”.

Most of central Bangkok was re-opened to the public by Tuesday afternoon although the Erawan shrine was still cordoned off. The normally busy intersection was closed to traffic and eerily empty aside from onlookers standing behind police tape to take pictures. “I feel sad for them, their families and relatives”.

“We didn’t think anything like this could happen in Bangkok”, said Holger Siegle, a German who said he and his newlywed wife had chosen Thailand because it seemed safe.

“There have been minor bombs or just noise, but this time they aimed for innocent lives”, Prayuth said. “They want to destroy our economy, our tourism”. “But we need to look at the before and after CCTV footage to see if there is a link”, Somyot told a news conference. “We have to find them first”.