Sounds similar to everyplace I’ve been to in India, except that India also has metal detectors and x-ray machines at the entrances to malls and hotels.
There are metal detectors to the entrances to Bangkok shopping malls, with security staff standing by. But again, not every entrance will have one. Plus my bag and the wife’s almost always set them off, but no one asks to look inside. We just keep on walking undisturbed, as do everyone else.
Death toll is about 20 now, with 125 injured. The defense minister and the head of national police have said the bomb does not fit the profile of tactics used in the Muslim unrest in then Deep South of Thailand. Going on for 11-1/2 years now, since January 4, 2004, nothing has ever happened outside that little area close to Malaysia. It’s highly doubtful they’re to blame.
Local Thai media and Chinese social media are starting to speculate it was carried out by Uighur muslims as retaliation for the forcible deportation of 100 Uighurs back to China in July:
To me this seems over the top if it’s connected to Thai internal politics, outside forces makes more sense.
I can understand the speculation, but I don’t buy it. That’s grasping at straws, but best to take a look at the possibility. But rather than aimed at Chinese tourists specifically, I’m guessing the bombing was aimed at tourists in general. Tourism here has been bouncing back in recent months, and the Chinese just happen to be the flavor of the day. European arrivals are way down due to the poor economy back home. Scaring tourists away would be a smart move, if you can ever call this sort of thing smart, to damage to the economy and bring down the government.
An Aussie friend of mine was walking along the walkway above with an Aussie rock star I’ve never heard of. Jimmy Barnes, of a band called Cold Chisel? They’d decided to take the overhead walkway to cross the intersection rather than shove past the crowded shrine. My friend says that decision probably saved both their lives. He works at the Bangkok Post, and they’ve been quoting him.
You might be right Sam, but if it is internal politics, they are raising the bar a LOT. This was a lot bigger and has had a lot more deaths than any of the previous attacks related to internal politics. In the 2006 NYE bombings only three people were killed.
This has just been posted:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Arab-like-man-seen-leaving-bag-at-Erawan-shrine-be-30266819.html
Yes I’d take that with a rather large grain of salt, but seems like thats the way they are slanting the investigation.
Ok, things change quickly, now they are blaming “anti government forces based in Thailand’s north east”
Take care.
While I appreciate the sentiment, I have a much bigger chance of being killed in a traffic accident in Bangkok than being a victim of terrorism. Life goes on as normal here…
Last night’s attack is not raising the bar very much. I still remember the citywide smoke and flames from the red shirts’ attempt to burn down Bangkok in 2010. They did succeed in destroying Central World shopping center at that same intersection as the Erawan Shrine; what you see today is the rebuilt version. Later that year, a red-shirt bomb maker accidentally blew up himself and his apartment building on the edge of the city while assembling bombs. This is just what those scum do.
Another bomb today. Smaller and no one hurt this time. But another site where quite a few tourists tend to be. Sathon Pier on the river, where there are some tourist riverboats.
This photo of the Erawan Shrine suspect has been released.
I’ve heard there was a second bomb today, making a total of three since yesterday; but I haven’t seen it on the news yet.
Two, maybe three, bomb attacks in unrelated locations doesn’t strike me as being the work of international terrorism.
Are they making any progress with the arrests? Did they ever catch the guys responsible for the bomb blasts from earlier in the thread?
Best wishes for our Siam dopers’ safety.
So far there has only been one incident today, the grenade thrown at Sathorn Pier that went into the water (luckily). There was rumors of other explosions but they turned out to be false. Richard Barrow gives very up to the minute updates on his twitter for anyone else that wants to follow:
https://twitter.com/richardbarrow
From what I’ve learned regarding that headline is based on an error on translation, or “journalists” too eager to pull a headline.
What Prayuth was talking about was a Red Shirt that had made some posts on social media about violence to erupt between August 14 and 18, and that they had identified that person; not that they had identified the actual bomber or that both things are in fact connected.
That’s good, I heard about it while more or less incommunicado while working on a location; I was relieved to learn that the bomb attack on the pier didn’t cause any injuries or deaths. Not for lack of trying, the bastard threw the bomb at a busy pier and by sheer chance it bounced off and fell in the canal instead.
I’m much leaning towards the Red Shirts on this one. Everything except, possibly, the high casualties, smells like them. Even the suspect’s yellow shirt seems gauged to shift the blame.
The number of casualties is no indication, IMHO, for example the possibility of killing a large number of people didn’t deter them from raining grenades on a busy Skytrain station in 2010; it was a miracle only one person died there.
A friend has an office on the 20th floor of a skyscraper on Sathon Road not far from Sathon Pier. His office faces toward the river a few blocks away. He told me tonight that not only did everyone in his office hear the Sathon Pier blast today but they all distinctly heard three (3) separate explosions close together. But the CCTV footage seems to show just the one explosion and spray of water. An echo effect maybe? Except for Ale’s reference above, I’ve not heard of any other explosions today, especially no solid reports of any so close together.
And speaking of today’s bomb, the latest news is the national police chief is saying this one and Monday’s do appear to be the work of the same perpetrators.
No, they have not. And thanks for your wishes.
They’re looking closely at a Uighur connection now, but I will be surprised if that’s what it turns out to be.
No bombs today (Yay!). Here’s a sketch of the as-yet unnamed suspect. The authorities are offering a reward of 1 million baht. That’s about US$28,000 and some change.
The Erawan Shrine reopened yesterday (Thursday), and this morning a multiple-religion ceremony was held. But unless the police know something they’re not saying – always possible but less likely than in the West when talking about the Thai police – they don’t seem any closer to catching the perp.
There are many advantages to living in a Third World country, but an efficient police and justice system is not one of them. Jonathon Head, the BBC’s Bangkok-based reporter, was doing a spot from the reopened shrine yesterday. Someone handed him some more bomb fragments they’d just found at the site, and Head speculated maybe the police had been in too much of a rush to clear the scene and get the site reopened. He walked down the street to the National Police Headquarters, a very short walk away. Some bemused guards at the gate looked at the fragments and told him sorry, everyone was gone for the day. (BBC later said Head did eventually manage to find someone to accept the fragments, but whether tit was there or somewhere else, I don’t know.)
Then there were two other men seen on the CCTV footage near the main suspect. It was thought they all may have been working together. But those two men were dismissed as suspects after they were seen on other CCTV videos in the area react in shock to the blast at the shrine they had just left. This report contains this nugget, which is solid gold: “Apart from being shocked, both men also reacted ‘girlishly’, detectives said on condition of anonymity, adding that their reaction would indicate they had nothing to do with the bombing.” 
(Since that story, the two men, after seeing themselves in the news, turned themselves in to police last night, where they were questioned and released. Seems they were just a couple of run-of-the-mill tour guides, one Thai and the other Chinese.)
EDIT: And my English friend is adamant that for the second bombing on Tuesday, the whole office heard three distinct blasts.