News Digest

Police to keep £54,000 reward for catching Bangkok shrine bomber

Police officers investigating Thailand’s deadliest bombing are to share the £54,000 reward offered to catch the killer among themselves. They were promised the payout by their boss, even though the suspect they arrested has yet to be tied to the attack on Bangkok’s Erawan Shrine. Standing behind a podium topped with three bundles of banknotes, multi-millionaire police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang commended the detective work which led to the arrest of a foreigner whose name, nationality and affiliation remain a mystery. "The accomplished work that led to the arrest is truly the work of the authorities and their investigative abilities,“ Somyot told a news conference, which opened with him pulling the wads of cash from a black holdall.

This was the work of the Thai authorities, there were no tip-offs

Police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang

The attack on the Hindu shrine on August 17 killed 20 people and injured more than 100. Also on Monday, police also issued arrest warrants for two suspects after a raid on a suburban apartment block uncovered possible bomb-making materials. Police were hunting for 26-year-old Thai woman Wunna Suansan, who is thought to have fled to Turkey, and a foreign man in his 40s after the search on a property in the Min Buri district uncovered fertilizer, digital watches and an explosives detonator. On Saturday, they arrested the as-yet unidentified foreigner and seized explosives and stacks of passports in a raid on an apartment in the nearby Nong Chok district.