Bombs rattle Bangkok during ASEAN summit

Many small bombs blasted across Bangkok on Friday, rattling the Thai capital as it hosted a regional summit attended by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and leaving four people wounded but not disrupting the diplomatic event.

Thailand, which has a grim history of political violence, remains deeply divided after a contentious March election returned a junta to power as a civilian government.

READ ALSO: Married U.S Teacher Jailed 20 Years After Sex With 13-Year-Old Boy

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who led the junta, blamed the bombs on “ill-intended people inciting violence” to “destroy peace and the country’s image”, while top Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) diplomats and their US and Chinese counterparts are in town.

Small devices — believed to be so-called “ping pong bombs” around the size of a table tennis ball — erupted at many locations across the city, none close to the summit venue.

Urging the public not to panic, Prayut said security had been tightened across the capital.

The blasts appeared to be symbolic attacks aimed at embarrassing the government during the major summit but not designed to cause mass casualties.

“Three people received slight injuries from shrapnel,” said Renu Suesattaya, director of Suanluang district where the first bombs were reported.

“I received a report that they are ‘ping pong bombs’ hidden in bushes by the road.”

An emergency service hotline later said a fourth person had been hospitalized.

Two further explosions shattered glass near a well-known downtown skyscraper, emergency police added.

Bomb disposal experts were deployed around the Mahanakorn Tower — owned by the King Power group that counts the Leicester City football club among its assets.

READ ALSO: 16-year-old Girl, Made 9As In 2019 WAEC Result 

 ‘Democratic fold’ 

The bombings took place just before a keynote speech by America’s top diplomat Pompeo, in which he praised Thailand for rejoining the “democratic fold” after five years of outright junta rule.

Thailand’s government urged the media to avoid speculation on the motive for the bombings.

“We do not know yet how many people are involved,” deputy prime minister Prawit Wongsuwon told reporters.

The blasts come weeks after former junta leader Prayut was inaugurated as a civilian prime minister, sparking outcry among many pro-democracy supporters in a kingdom scored by divisions.

 

ADVERTISE WITH US TODAY

Facebook Comments

2019-08-02T09:13:02+00:00

Leave A Comment