Bangkok Shrine Bombing: Thai Police Hunt for Suspect Seen in Video

CNN

19 August 2015

Suspicions focused on one man as investigators picked through the wreckage of the powerful bomb blast that brought death and destruction to a popular shrine in the Thai capital.

Police said Tuesday they are hunting for a suspect seen in CCTV footage who they believe is connected to the bombing, which ripped through crowds gathered near the Erawan Shrine on Monday evening, killing at least 22 people and reportedly injuring about 120.

In one CCTV image released by police, the man carries a dark-colored backpack near the shrine. In another, he no longer has the backpack. He’s wearing a yellow T-shirt and dark-framed glasses.

Royal Thai Police Commissioner Gen. Somyot Poompanmoung said authorities don’t yet know the man’s identity or whether he is Thai or a foreigner.

At a later news conference, police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri said authorities were “very sure” the man in the yellow shirt was the bomber.

The commissioner said the man sat down at 6:52 p.m. local time (7:52 a.m. ET) Monday and hid the backpack underneath a bench.

Investigators believe he left a pipe bomb.

… “It is by far the most devastating attack that Bangkok has seen — or Thailand has seen, for that matter — as far as I can remember,” said Joseph Liow, a senior fellow at the Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies.

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