News Digest

CCTV images show ‘bomber’ planting Bangkok’s deadly shrine device

Images have been released of a man Thai police have identified as the Bangkok shrine bomber. The CCTV pictures show a young man wearing a yellow T-shirt and glasses, and carrying a rucksack. In the next image, the backpack has gone. Eight foreigners were among those killed and more than 120 injured when the device detonated at the Erawan shrine in Bangkok on Monday evening. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha said the suspect was thought to belong to an “anti-government group based in Thailand’s north-east” - though he did not explain why he thought that was the case. The rural Isaan region is a stronghold for the Red Shirt movement that backed Yingluck Shinawatra and her brother Thaksin - the siblings deposed by military coups in 2014 and 2006.

It is much clearer who the bombers are, but I can’t reveal right now. We have suspects. There are not many people.

Defence minister Prawit Wongsuwan

Thai authorities are fighting an ongoing separatist insurgency in the south of the country but Royal Thai Army chief and deputy defence minister General Udomdej Sitabutr said the carnage was not consistent with attacks there. He said: “This does not match with incidents in southern Thailand. The type of bomb used is also not in keeping with the south." The Bangkok Post said most of those injured were foreign tourists. The government called the bomb a bid to destroy the economy. Meanwhile, a bomb thrown at Bangkok’s Sathorn pier on Tuesday caused a explosion but no injuries or damage.

The yellow shirt guy is not just the suspect. He is the bomber.

Police Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri