Bangkok left reeling after deadliest attack in years leaves at least 19 dead

Thailand’s military rulers are facing up to the deadliest attack in the capital in recent memory after at least 19 people were killed in a bomb blast that the government blamed on forces seeking to destroy its tourist economy.

Body parts and mangled scooters were scattered across a busy intersection in central Bangkok after the improvised device went off at about 7pm local time (noon GMT) at the Erawan Hindu shrine.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the deadly assault in which more than 123 people were injured is a major test for the military-run administration, which ousted the elected government in May 2014. The military is fighting a Muslim insurgency in the south but militants rarely launch attacks of this scale on the capital.

“The perpetrators intended to destroy the economy and tourism, because the incident occurred in the heart of the tourism district,” the defence minister, Prawit Wongsuwan, told Reuters.

“It was a pipe bomb,” the national police chief, Somyot Poompanmuang, said, adding that the toll could climb to nearer 30. “It was placed inside the Erawan shrine.”

Cloud of fire

CCTV footage captured a cloud of fire, and showed Thai people and a foreign man running away.

“Those who have planted this bomb are cruel. They aim to kill because everyone knows that at 7pm the shrine is crowded with Thais and foreigners,” Somyot said. “Planting a bomb there means they want to see a lot of dead people.”

Bangkok has been mostly calm since the coup last year but anger from the opposition has intensified after the junta said it may not hold elections until 2017.

The last major bombing in Bangkok occurred on New Year’s Eve at the end of 2006, when three people were killed in a series of explosions. Responsibility was never claimed.

Police and the fire brigade cordoned off the entire intersection with tape and human barriers. Four major roads and the above-ground metro rail converge here, and high-rise hotels and malls line the street.

Hundreds of onlookers, mostly from the security services but also journalists and some tourists, stood at the edge of the tape. When thunder clapped in the clouds above, everyone jumped.

At the multistorey Grand Hyatt hotel, which is right next to the shrine, locals and tourists waited for the situation to calm down, looking at photos on social media of the wreckage as they sat only metres away.

Thanapon Peng, a 25-year-old who works in marketing, passed the site on a motorbike taxi moments after the blast. “I saw glass. I saw some organs of people on the road. I don’t know how many people there were,” he said.

He was told by hotel staff to wait inside, where a musician still played on the mezzanine grand piano and staff tried to help people. Outside, a single empty stretcher lay where taxis drop off guests.

There were suggestions in the aftermath that a second and third bomb had been hidden in the capital. Police with torches looked under bushes and walking the grounds of the nearby police station in an apparent search for other bombs.

Medics and police formed a line at the large intersection and walked slowly forward, looking for any debris. A full death toll would come later, medics said, as many of the critically wounded had been sent to different hospitals.

Impact of explosion

The explosion was large enough to throw a metre-wide chunk of metal to a third-floor balcony on the other side of the street, about 50m away. Human flesh lay on the road and medics were picking it up two hours after the blast.

The shrine is a major attraction for visitors from Asia and for Thai people. Dedicated to the Hindu god Brahma, it is also popular among Thailand’s Buddhist and Chinese tourists.

Several ambulances rushed along the road away from the shrine to hospitals. Most of the wounded were taken to a hospital very close to the blast site and a long line of ambulances waited outside. Empty wheelchairs and stretchers stood at the entrance to the emergency care unit, where people were packed into the reception.

The Nation television said the government would set up a “war room” to co-ordinate a response. Some were pointing fingers at Muslim separatists in Thailand’s south, but the country has also seen violent confrontations between political groups in the capital. Two pipe bombs exploded in the same district in February but did not cause significant damage. – Guardian service