Bomb meant ‘to destroy economy’ claims 16 in downtown Bangkok
Print Edition
A BOMB planted at one of Bangkok’s most renowned shrine last night killed at least 16 people, including two Chinese tourists, and wounded scores in an attack the government called a bid to destroy the economy.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast at the Erawan shrine at a major city-center intersection. Thai forces are fighting a low-level Muslim insurgency in the predominantly Buddhist country’s south, but those rebels have rarely launched attacks outside their ethnic Malay heartland.
“The perpetrators intended to destroy the economy and tourism, because the incident occurred in the heart of the tourism district,” Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said.
Several media outlets had earlier reported that 27 people were killed but national police chief Somyot Poompanmuang told reporters the death toll was 16 in an attack he said was unprecedented in Thailand. “It was a pipe bomb. It was placed inside the Erawan shrine.”
The shrine, on a busy corner near top hotels, shopping malls and offices, is a major attraction, especially for visitors from East Asia, including China.
The government would set up a “war room” to coordinate the response to the blast, Nation TV quoted Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha as saying.
Two people from China and one from the Philippines were among the dead, police said.
The city’s medical emergency center said 81 people were wounded by the blast, which rattled windows several kilometers from the site.
“It was like a meat market,” said Marko Cunningham, a New Zealand paramedic working with a Bangkok ambulance service, who said the blast had left a two-meter-wide crater. “There were bodies everywhere. Some were shredded. There were legs where heads were supposed to be. It was horrific.”
There were chaotic scenes at Chulakongkorn Hospital, one of many nearby medical facilities that received victims as nurses ferried the injured on gurneys.
“Some (of the victims) are Chinese,” Minister for Tourism Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said as she visited the hospital. Xinhua reported that 15 Chinese were among the injured.
Earlier, authorities had ordered onlookers back, saying they were checking for a second bomb but police later said no other devices were found.
While initial suspicion might fall on Muslim separatists in the south, Thailand has been riven for a decade by an intense and sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.
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