Thai police release sketch of Bangkok bomb suspect

The bombing involved at least 10 people and was planned a month in advance, Reuters reported, citing Thai police chief Somyot Poompanmoung. It accuses an “unnamed foreigner” of conspiracy to commit “premeditated murder” and weapons offences.

At a later news conference, police spokesman, Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri, said authorities were “very sure” the man in the yellow shirt was the bomber.

Police have extended a 1 million baht award for any information leading to the man’s arrest.

Prawut also said that two other men seen in the grainy CCTV footage were being sought.

Police are yet to determine his nationality or if he is still in the country, however junta leader-cum-Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha ruled out a possible link with “Uighur militants” Wednesday – a theory which had been doing the rounds in Thai media since the bombing.

Although authorities said it was unlikely the bombing was the work of global terrorists, authorities have so far not blamed any other group for the worst-ever attack in Thailand’s history, which the government said was meant to wreck the country’s economy and tourist industry.

Family members of Neoh Hock Guan, a survivor of Monday’s blast in Bangkok, look at the coffins of his wife and son who were killed in the attack, in Butterworth, Malaysia, August 20, 2015.

Suchart insisted he had no connection to the bomb plot, police say.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, which has no precedent in Bangkok.

The sketch was based on footage that showed a man dressed in a yellow T-shirt dumping a backpack inside the shrine compound and walking away through a crowd of tourists about 20 minutes before the explosion.

The man in red then left the scene, and a third suspect – a man in a white top – was pictured directly behind him also leaving.

The city’s two elevated train lines both pass above the shrine, while a steady stream of tourists and worshippers make offerings and take photos throughout the day. Experts say the bomb attacks in Thailand could deal a heavy blow to its tourism sector which has seen 15 million foreign arrivals in the first half of 2015.

Chinese Embassy in Bangkok said on Wednesday that six Chinese nationals, including four from the mainland and two from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, have killed in the blast.

None of those attacks involved a bomb that was meant to produce mass casualties.