Guard given honour for foiling bomb

The Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) awarded an honorary plaque to a security guard working in Patong, Phuket, who risked his life when he carried a live incendiary bomb away from a busy shopping complex this month.

Gen Pisit Sitthisarn, Isoc secretarygeneral, yesterday awarded the plaque to Kamtorn Katekaew, a security guard at the China Town Plaza shopping complex.

On Aug 10, two men entered a shop inside the shopping complex. Before they left, one of them hid a plastic bag containing a incendiary device underneath a pile of clothes.

The bag was found to contain a mobile phone wired to an electronic circuit board and a phone charger. Also in the box were alcohol gel and matches.

Shop owner Sitlatan Malathong found the suspicious looking device shortly after the two men left. She asked an employee to place the device in a bucket of water, hoping the water would disable the circuitry.

However, the device’s power light continued to flash, Ms Sitlatan said.

Mr Kamtorn, who is in his 50s, said he had just finished his shift when someone said “there is a bomb”. He ran to the shop and told people not to panic as it would spread to other shoppers.

He carried the bucket to an empty space inside a car park about 60 metres from the shop.

Mr Kamtorn said police were then alerted about the discovery, and arrived about 30 minutes later.

“I thought, if I wait for the police I don’t know when the bomb will explode. So I wanted to move it to an open area in the car park as quickly as I could, far from the crowded area,” Mr Kamtorn said after receiving the honour.

“While I was running, I thought the bomb might go off at any time and I must be ready to die. I was thinking about my family, especially my only son who is an army private stationed in Narathiwat.

“What I did shows my son that his father is brave too, like a soldier,” he added.