New suspect sought in Bangkok bombings

Authorities had said they were looking for a “woman wearing a black shirt” who video showed standing in front of the prime suspect, but they now believe she is not connected to Monday’s blast, which killed least 20 people and wounded more than 120.

Four days after the explosion at the revered Erawan Shrine, at one of Bangkok’s busiest intersections, there were few solid leads into the perpetrators of the deadliest attack in Thailand’s recent history. “The thing he kicked in the water might just be garbage, we don’t know yet”, he said. The Chinese embassy in Thailand says relatives of all seven deceased victims have arrived in Bangkok.

The following day, shortly after 1:00 pm on Tuesday, an explosion went off in the canal, which is near a popular tourist pier, sending people scurrying for cover but causing no injuries. Asked if the man in the video was linked to the bombing at the shrine, he said police had not yet drawn that conclusion.

The government says the attack was unlikely to be the work of global terrorists.

Police spokesman Prawuth Thawornsiri said Saturday that police were seeking the man for questioning, even though it remains unclear whether his actions had anything to do with either explosion. The spokesperson also denied media reports that the police were hunting for a man with an Islamic name.

“We are treating her as a witness now”, Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri said Saturday. “The footage can not be relied on (as evidence)”.

A sketch of the suspected bomber at the Erawan Shrine was released on Wednesday but immigration officials have not spotted him at any checkpoint. Two men who stood nearby him looked suspiciously like confederates, but made themselves known to police who have more of less cleared them of any reposbibility.

After being criticized for, authorities appeared extra guarded of their statements.

“I have been given permission from my father to give seven million baht ($196,000), two for any informant and five million for those officials who investigate and make arrests”, he wrote on Friday.

Nobody has claimed duty for the blast, sparking quite a lot of theories into who could be behind it. One is that the blast was a revenge assault associated to Thailand’s current deportation to China of greater than 100 Uighur Muslims, or that it might have been carried out by Islamist teams increasing their attain in Southeast Asia.

This is in addition to a 2-million-baht reward that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has offered, according to a Facebook post by his son, Panthongtae.