Bomber captured on video, Thai police say
Shrine reopens to public as police hunt for ‘yellow shirt guy’ captured on video
BANGKOK— A central Bangkok shrine where a deadly bomb blast killed 20 people reopened to the public Wednesday as authorities searched for a man seen in a grainy security video who they say is the prime suspect in an attack authorities called the worst in the Thailand’s history.
A stream of people arrived at the Erawan Shrine, kneeling in prayer, lighting incense and placing flowers at the site where 36 hours earlier an explosion scattered body parts across one of the capital’s busiest intersections.
Buddhist monks in saffron robes joined members of the public to chant prayers at the popular Hindu shrine.
Among those who paid respects was an office worker, Nuansupha Sarunsikarin, who expressed shock and sadness over the attack, which no one has yet claimed responsibility for.
“I’m depressed for those innocent people who had to pay for something they’re not involved with and now have no chance to live their lives,” Nuansupha said.
Police said they had no doubt that the man seen in the video wearing a yellow shirt and carrying a large, dark-coloured backpack was responsible for the attack. But authorities gave no indication that they were aware of his whereabouts.
“The yellow shirt guy is not just the suspect. He is the bomber,” police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri said Tuesday.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha called the shrine bombing near a busy intersection that killed 20 and wounded over 100 “the worst incident that has ever happened in Thailand,” and he promised to track down those responsible.
“There have been minor bombs or just noise, but this time they aimed for innocent lives. They want to destroy our economy, our tourism.”
Bangkok was rattled again Tuesday when another pipe bomb blew up at the Sathorn Pier, which is used by tourists, although no one was hurt.
Prawut released several photos of Monday’s suspect, with and without the backpack, on social media. The images were apparently taken from closed-circuit video at the shrine before the bomb exploded.
Video posted separately on Thai media appeared to show the same man sitting on a bench at the shrine, taking off the backpack and leaving it behind as he walked away.
Without elaborating, the prime minister said, “Today we have seen the closed-circuit footage, we saw some suspects, but it wasn’t clear. We have to find them first.”
Prayuth said the government will expedite “all investigative efforts to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”
The bomb, which police say was made from a pipe and weighed three kilograms, went off about 7 p.m. in an upscale area filled with tourists, office workers and shoppers. No one has claimed responsibility.
The Erawan Shrine is dedicated to the Hindu god Brahma, but is extremely popular among Thailand’s Buddhists as well as Chinese tourists. Although Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, it has enormous Hindu influence on its religious practices and language.
Thai authorities identified five victims as Thai and four as Chinese — two of them from Hong Kong — along with two Malaysians and one Singaporean, and said the nationalities of the other eight victims remained unknown.
The British Foreign Office said one victim was a British citizen named Vivian Chan who lived in Hong Kong. Officials at London’s BPP University said she had studied there.
“Everyone at BPP University is devastated to hear of the loss of one of our students, Vivian Chan Wing Yan, in Bangkok yesterday. Our thoughts are with Vivian’s family and we will work to support them in any way we can,” the school said in a statement.
Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said authorities had no idea an attack had been planned.
“We didn’t know about this ahead of time. We had no intelligence on this attack,” he said.
Prayuth vowed to “hurry and find the bombers,” though he noted there may be just one perpetrator. Speaking to reporters, he continued what has been a notoriously prickly relationship with the media since the former general took control in a May 2014 coup that ousted a civilian government.
Thailand has seen many violent attacks in recent years, particularly in a more-than-decade-long insurgency by Muslim separatists that has killed over 5,000 in the country’s south. Those attacks have never reached the capital, however.
The suspect seen in the video wearing a yellow shirt raised initial questions about whether the violence was politically motivated, since one group of previous protesters was known to wear that colour of clothing. But officials have not linked the attack to Thai politics.
New Way Travel, a Bangkok-based agency that caters to Hong Kong tourists, said all its tour groups scheduled to arrive in coming days had cancelled. Tourists reacted with concern. “We didn’t think anything like this could happen in Bangkok,” said Holger Siegle of Germany, who said he and his newlywed wife had chosen Thailand because it seemed safe. “Our honeymoon and our vacation will go on, but with a very unsafe feeling.”