‘Network’ involved in Bangkok bombing

Thai National Police Chief Somyot Poompanmoung said Wednesday the suspected bomber was likely acting as part of a network, but investigators have not yet established his motives or nationality.

The image shows a fair-skinned man with thick, medium-length black hair, a wispy beard and black glasses.

The man suspected of carrying out the deadly bombing of a popular shrine in the heart of the Thai capital probably had accomplices, Thai police said.

He was seen wearing a yellow T-shirt, baggy shirts and two sweatbands, and appeared to leave a rucksack at the shrine on grainy CCTV footage released this week.

A manhunt is under way for a man shown in a security video leaving a backpack at the popular shrine.

Another possibility being probed is that the suspect belongs to anti-government “Red Shirt” movements in the northeast, which backed Yingluck Shinawatra and her brother Thaksin – the siblings deposed by military coups in 2014 and 2006.

A 1 million baht ($28,000) reward has been offered to anyone who can give police information leading to his arrest.

“We sent a request for assistance”, deputy national police spokesman Kissana Phathancharoen told Reuters.

Lt Gen Prawut told reporters police would continue to scrutinise closed-circuit TV footage of the area from before the blast for clues about suspects.

They are also looking for two other men spotted in footage from the scene who they say could have been working with the chief suspect.

Authorities in Thailand say the two men handed themselves in to police and are now being questioned. Time stamps show he left the shrine 15 minutes before the explosion, which struck just before 7 p.m.

After police released sketches of the suspect on Wednesday, social media witch hunts prompted several individuals to openly declare their innocence.

(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit). A Singaporean who did not want to be identified but said his mother was killed in the bombing pays respects at the Erawan Shrine at Rajprasong intersection in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, August 19, 2015.

In response to the attack, Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha promised that authorities would quickly track down those responsible for the bombing.

The main suspect may have left the country, police said earlier Thursday, adding that they were “unsure” of his whereabouts.

A day after the site reopenedc, Thais and foreign tourists are continuing to pray, light candles and laying flowers at the shrine.

But with the bomber still on the run ordinary Thais said they fear another attack.

No group has claimed responsibility, but Thailand has multiple flash points including deep political rivalries and a Muslim insurgency that has waged sporadic attacks in the past in Thailand’s southern regions.

A small explosion on Tuesday by a bridge at the city’s Chao Praya River has been tied to Monday’s bomb.