News Digest

Bangkok bomber suspect’s taxi driver questioned as hunt goes cold

A taxi driver has been questioned in connection with last week’s Bangkok bombing, amid suggestions he may have unwittingly escorted the main suspect away from the scene. Investigators have been struggling to find a young man in a yellow T-shirt who was seen leaving a backpack at the Erawan Shrine – but the taxi driver believes he had a passenger matching the suspect’s description in the aftermath of the attack. Police have been facing growing public pressure to catch the perpetrator – but on Monday, they admitted in a news conference that the trail had gone cold.

He spoke Thai with a foreign accent. I don’t think he was Thai. He was the same man as in the clip.

The Bangkok bomber suspect’s taxi driver

However, 75% of the security cameras along the attacker’s getaway route were broken at the time, meaning officers “have had to use their imagination” in tracing his movements. The investigation has also been hampered by a lack of sophisticated equipment, with a national police chief saying: “Have you seen CSI? We don’t have those things.” According to the government, the attack was designed to damage the Thai economy by hurting the tourism industry.