Thai military says global terror link ‘unlikely’

Security services in Thailand have released images of a suspect they are seeking in connection with Monday night’s bombing at a popular shrine in Bangkok that has left at least 20 dead and over 100 injured.

The Hindu shrine compound was erratically sealed off after the blast and the cordon was crisscrossed by police, soldiers, volunteer medics and journalists even as explosives experts combed the area for clues.

A central Bangkok shrine reopened Wednesday to the public after Monday’s bomb blast as aut…

He added: “It’s a network.”

“(He) might be Thai or foreign”, Prawut said.

“It’s exactly the same, the equipment used to make it, the bomb size”, Colonel Kamthorn Ouicharoen, of Thai bomb squad police, told AFP.

Thailand will offer a 1 million baht reward ($28,104) for information on suspects of Monday’s blast at Bangkok’s Erawan Shrine that killed at least 21 people, police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri announced Wednesday on Twitter.

A huge manhunt is under way for the young man in a yellow T-shirt seen on a grainy video apparently planting the bomb who could be “foreign”, say authorities. “Not one person can do this”, he said.

Thawornsiri said the suspect “looks like a foreigner” but “might have been in a disguise and wearing a fake nose” to hide his identity.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha “is anxious about the security of people and tourists in Thailand“, the police chief said.

“I would like to tell those behind the incidents that if they want to be safe they should turn themselves in”.

One devotee had more reason than most to give his thanks to the deity, Brahma, the Hindu god of creation.

A BBC reporter at the scene says there appears to be low security in place, with the public free to walk in unchecked. But on Wednesday, Poompanmoung was more measured: “I am confident that there are Thais involved but I am not saying it is just Thais or that there are foreigners”, he said at a news conference.

Another 26 Chinese, including 19 from the Chinese mainland, five from Hong Kong and two from China’s Taiwan, were being treated in hospitals, the embassy said.

“They may kill them to ensure their silence”, he said.

Bangkok was rattled by a second blast Tuesday at a popular ferry pier which exploded in the Chao Phraya River and caused no injuries.

The Telegraph reports two other men seen in the security footage are suspected to be involved in the attack.

Gen Sukhontapatipak said no motive was being ruled out and the character of the bombing was “quite different” from previous attacks by Islamist separatists in southern Thailand.

No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion, the victims of which included one British national.