Several people behind Bangkok bomb, say Thai police

Thai police have issued an identikit sketch of a man described as a foreigner in connection with the Erawan shrine bombing in Bangkok that killed 20 people, including 11 from overseas, and set a reward of 1 million baht (€25,400) for information.

The Hindu shrine, which was the scene of carnage after a devastating blast on Monday night, reopened yesterday.

The police warrant said authorities were searching for a “foreign man”, and the sketch released showed a fair-skinned man with thick, medium-length black hair, a wispy beard and black glasses.

He was seen wearing a yellow T-shirt, baggy shirts and two sweatbands, and appeared to leave a rucksack at the shrine on grainy CCTV footage released this week.

“He had white skin and must have been a European or have mixed blood, perhaps with Middle Eastern blood,” said police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri. He didn’t say if there were any reasons other than skin colour for making that assumption.

Perpetrators

Police believe that the attack, which injured 125, was carried out by a network of perpetrators and Mr Prawut said police were now convinced that two other men seen in the video footage were accomplices.

“I don’t suspect one person, I suspect many people,” police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.

“I am confident there are Thais involved, but I am not saying it is just Thais or that there are foreigners.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion, and the government believes the attack on one of the capital’s best-loved shrines was designed to wreck Thailand’s economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism.

"The motive is to discredit the government and make it unacceptable to other countries when it comes to safety in the country,"Mr Somyot said, quoted in the Bangkok Post.

Theories Various theories are doing the rounds as to who might be behind the bombing.

Police have not ruled out any group for the attack, including those opposed to the ruling military junta, which took power in a coup last year.

Officials did say the bombing did not match the tactics of Muslim insurgents in the south, nor was it similar to attacks by the 'Red Shirt' supporters of exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Somwang Assarasee, a leader of the Red Shirt political party, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), offered 2 million baht (€50,920) for information.

Prime minister Prayut Chan-ocha said the country needed no help from abroad.

"This incident happened in Thailand. It is Thailand. Why do we want other people to come in and investigate?" the former general told reporters.

Police said they were considering the possibility that ethnic Uighurs from the restive region of Xinjiang in western China were behind the bombing. – (Additional reporting by Reuters)