THAILAND-BLAST/SITE-SECURITY Bangkok death toll rises to 27 after bomb explodes outside Hindu shrine

Record ID: 143651

  • Title: THAILAND-BLAST/SITE-SECURITY Bangkok death toll rises to 27 after bomb explodes outside Hindu shrine
  • Date: 17th August 2015
  • Summary: BANGKOK, THAILAND (AUGUST 17, 2015) (REUTERS) EMERGENCY PERSONNEL STAND ON CLOSED OFF STREET AUTHORITIES STANDING NEAR SITE OF BOMB BLAST WHITE SHEET COVERING OBJECT ON STREET POLICE LOOKING AT SITE OF BOMB BLAST PEOPLE STANDING NEAR STREET CORDON POLICE AND AUTHORITIES AT CORDON POLICE OFFICER TALKS TO TWO MEN ON FOOTPATH DEBRIS OF BOMB BLAST POLICE WALKING AROUND SITE OF
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Thailand
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABZZV0M7SZGZ7G3ZDV3FZYXADL
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Several foreigners were among the 27 people killed on Monday (August 17) when a bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded outside a shrine in the Thai capital, media said.
    The Nation television said 27 had been killed in the blast at the Erawan Hindu shrine, and other media said at least three foreigners were among them. Most of the wounded were tourists from China and Taiwan, media said.
    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
    Thai forces are fighting a low-level Muslim insurgency in the predominantly Buddhist country's south, but those rebels have rarely launched attacks outside their ethnic Malay heartland.
    The Erawan shrine, on a busy corner near top hotels, shopping centres, offices and a hospital, is a major tourist attraction, especially for visitors from East Asia. Many ordinary Thais also worship there.
    The government would set up a "war room" to coordinate the response to the blast, the Nation television channel quoted Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha as saying.
    Police confirmed at least 12 people have died, and 78 have been wounded.
    A Reuters witness at the blast site said she saw pieces of human flesh there, and a soldier later told onlookers to move back, saying they were checking for a second bomb.
    After the blast, authorities stepped up security checks at some major city intersections and in tourist areas.
    While initial suspicion might fall on Muslim separatists in the south, Thailand has been riven for a decade by an intense and sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.
    Occasional small blasts have been blamed on one side or the other. Two pipe bombs exploded outside a luxury shopping mall in the same area in February, but caused little damage.
    Police said that attack was aimed at raising tension when the city was under martial law.
    The army has ruled Thailand since May 2014, when it ousted an elected government after months of at times violent anti-government protests.
    The shrine intersection was the site of months of anti-government protests in 2010 by supporters of ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Dozens were killed in a military crackdown and a shopping centre was set ablaze.
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