Thai prime minister says foreign man was arrested at checkpoint on Cambodian border in connection with Bangkok attack.

The blast at the Erawan shrine killed 20 people, mainly Chinese tourists [AP]

Thailand’s prime minister has announced that a second foreign man has been arrested at a checkpoint on the Cambodian border on suspicion of involvement in last month’s deadly shrine bombing.

The announcement on Tuesday was the second confirmed arrest in connection with the August 17 blast that tore through a religious shrine in downtown Bangkok and killed 20 people.

The suspect is being flown back to Bangkok from the border by helicopter.

Prayuth Chan-ocha, who also heads the nation’s military government, was asked by reporters to comment on rumours a man had been arrested.

“He has been arrested at Sa Kaeo checkpoint,” Prayuth told reporters, referring to the Thai side of the border, adding: “He is a main suspect and a foreigner.”

The motive for the blast, Thailand’s worst single mass-casualty attack remains shrouded in mystery.

Alternating suspicion

Suspicion has alternated between Thailand’s bitter political rivals, organised criminal gangs, rebels in the kingdom’s strife-torn south and sympathisers of refugees from China’s Uighur minority.

In July, Thailand deported 109 Uighurs to China, enraging supporters of the minority who allege they face torture and repression back home.

Thai officials have also issued a warrant for a 26-year-old Thai Muslim woman called Wanna Suansan.

Those killed by the blast at the Erawan shrine were mainly ethnic-Chinese tourists from around the region.

Erawan shrine reopens as police release sketch of man suspected to be behind attack that left 20 people dead.

by Al Jazeera

Thai police have released a sketch of the main suspect in a deadly bombing that killed at least 20 people in the capital Bangkok, as the national police chief said the attack was carried out by “a network”.

Police chief Somyot Poompanmoung said on Wednesday that the attacker did not carry out Monday’s attack by himself, without elaborating further.

He made the comment as he headed into a meeting of national police commanders, adding that he was carrying orders from the prime minister who “is worried about the security of people and tourists in Thailand”.

“He didn’t do it alone, for sure. It’s a network,” Poompanmoung told the Associated Press.

Police say two other suspects have been identified in CCTV footage of the blast site.

Officials various times said that they did not rule out any group, including elements opposed to the military government, though they said it did not match the tactics of Muslim fighters in the south or “red shirt” supporters of the previous administration.

Foreigners dead

The sketch released shows a fair-skinned man with thick, medium-length black hair, a wispy beard and black glasses. It is unclear whether the man was Thai or a foreigner.

More than 100 other people were wounded by the blast that shredded bodies at one of the city’s busiest intersections.

On Tuesday, the police released grainy closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of a young man wearing a yellow t-shirt.

Police say the sketch could help locate the yellow-shirted man seen in the CCTV footage. A 1 million baht ($28,000) reward has been offered to anyone who can give police information leading to his arrest.

Police also said they would take the sketch to a court and ask that an arrest warrant be issued for a man matching the description.

Shrine reopened

On Wednesday, Buddhist monks led prayers for the reopening of a Bangkok shrine located in busy Ratchaprasong commercial district.

A small explosion on Tuesday by a bridge at the city’s Chao Praya River has been tied to Monday’s bomb.

Colonel Kamthorn Ouicharoen, of the Thai bomb squad police, confirmed the bridge bomb was the same type as the one detonated at the Erawan shrine.

Thailand has experienced a near-decade long political crisis that has seen endless rounds of street violence, but never anything on the scale of Monday’s bomb.

Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler, reporting from Bangkok, said the bombings came just as tourism is rebounding in Thailand.

“The arrival numbers of the all-important Chinese market doubled for the first half of this year compared to the same period last year,” he said.

About 10,000 additional security forces have been deployed in Bangkok after the bombing, reassuring some tourists.

“At first I was shocked to hear about the blast. After assessing the situation, I think Bangkok might be safer after the bomb,” one Chinese tourist told Al Jazeera.

by BBC

Bangkok: A bomb has exploded close to a shrine in the centre of the Thai capital, Bangkok, police say.

Local reports suggest at least 12 people have died and at least 20 more have been injured.

The BBC’s Jonathan Head, who is at the scene, says there is a huge amount of chaos, with body parts scattered everywhere.
The attack took place close to the Erawan Shrine in the capital’s central Chidlom district.

The explosion occurred at about 19:00 local time (12:00 GMT), with police saying it may have been caused by a motorcycle bomb.

‘Burnt motorbikes’

Our correspondent says this a very well known shrine in the centre of Bangkok, next to a five-star hotel.

He says people around the shrine were hit by the full force of the blast.

There are burnt motorbikes on the main road, with paramedics and police trying to take the injured away, he says.

The shrine is to the Hindu god Brahma but is also visited by thousands of Buddhists each day.

National police spokesman Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri told Agence France-Presse news agency: “I can confirm it was a bomb, we can’t tell which kind yet, we are checking.”

The explosion was on the Ratchaprasong intersection, which has been the centre of political demonstrations in recent years.

Our correspondent says bomb attacks in Bangkok are extremely rare.