Thai authorities focus on suspect seen in CCTV footage at blast site
Thai authorities said on August 18 they were looking for a suspect seen on closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage near a popular shrine where a bomb blast killed 22 people, nearly half of them foreigners.
The government said the attack during August 17's evening rush hour in Bangkok's commercial hub was aimed at destroying the economy. No one has claimed responsibility.
Jangling nerves in the capital on August 18, a small explosive device was thrown from a bridge towards a river pier, sending a plume of water into the air, but no one was injured.
Major-General Werachon Sukhondhapatipak said there were similarities between August 17's deadly blast and the smaller, August 18 explosion, but added the authorities had not established links between the two. "Both were TNT bombs," he told Reuters. "There's a pattern, but we have not yet found links."
The man suspected of August 17's bombing at the Erawan shrine was seen in grainy CCTV footage entering the compound wearing a backpack, sitting down against a railing and then slipping out of the bag's straps.
Wearing a yellow shirt and with shaggy, dark hair, the young man then stands up and walks out holding a blue plastic bag and what appears to be a mobile phone. The backpack was left by the fence as tourists milled about.
National police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang said the suspect could be Thai or foreign."That man was carrying a backpack and walked past the scene at the time of the incident. But we need to look at the before and after CCTV footage to see if there is a link," Somyot told a news conference.
Police earlier said they had not ruled out any group, including elements opposed to the military government, for the bombing at the shrine, although officials said the attack did not match the tactics of Muslim insurgents in the south.