Bangkok Shrine Bombing: Thai Cops Issue Sketch of Main Suspect

A stream of worshipers and Buddhist monks arrived to pray at the Hindu religious site, which is popular with locals and Chinese tourists.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast that left more than 120 injured at one of the capital’s busiest intersections during evening rush hour. An elevated walkway can be seen ahead, which could be the location from where a previous amateur video captured the blast.

Authorities are hunting for the man seen on a surveillance video putting a backpack under a bench in the shrine and then walking away shortly before the blast went off.

Police have offered a 1 million baht ($28,080) reward for information leading to his arrest.

In releasing the sketch, national police chief General Somyot Poompanmoung said the suspect is believed to be a member of a wider network, and not a lone wolf attacker.

He also told reporters that authorities had not yet been able to establish the nationality or whereabouts of the main suspect for the bombing, though they are now keeping watch for him at Thai borders.

On Wednesday, the Southern Criminal Court in Bangkok said an “unnamed foreigner” was behind the attack and a conspiracy to commit “premeditated murder”. He said the suspect “looks like a foreigner” but “might have been in a disguise and wearing a fake nose” to hide his identity.

The police sketch of the suspected bomber showed him with black-rimmed glasses, a full head of dark hair and a light complexion.

Closed-circuit television footage shows a man in a yellow shirt removing a backpack he was carrying and placing it carefully on the floor inside the shrine.

“The ongoing attempts at destruction might be politically motivated, targeting the economy, tourism for whatever reason”, the prime minister said Tuesday in a televised address”.

Tommy Goh, 56, a Thai-Malaysian from Penang, said only a delayed taxi from his hotel spared him from being at the shrine around the time of the blast.

He is “the prime target whom we must capture” and authorities “will find legal means to ensure his safety”, the Prime Minister said.

Bangkok’s Erawan shrine reopened to the public on Wednesday, two days after a deadly bombing left 20 dead.

Office worker Nuansupha Sarunsikarin said: “I’m depressed for those innocent people“.

Singapore also confirmed one of its nationals was among those killed in the attack.

Meanwhile, 17 mainlanders, two Hong Kong tourists and three people from Taiwan are still receiving treatment in the hospital, while 10 others have been discharged, SCMP reports. Police said that bomb was thrown from the Taksin Bridge and fell into the Chao Phraya River, where it exploded.