Photo of bomber released by police
A police sketch of the suspected bomber.
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Police yesterday released a photo of a man they said planted a bomb in a telephone booth in front of Major Cineplex Ratchayothin in Bangkok's Bang Khen district late on Monday night.
The suspect appears to be a Thai man between 25-30 years of age, 165 to 170 cm tall, with a compact build and dark complexion. He was seen chatting on his mobile phone in the booth and the last person in it before the explosion around 11pm on Monday night. Pol Lt General Jongrak Jutha-nont, a senior investigator handling the case, called on the man to turn himself in to police. But police were not ready yet to seek an arrest warrant, he said. Asked whether police had any idea which region the man was from - after initial suggestions the suspected bomber could be from the South and may have carried out the attack for Muslim separatists, Jongrak said: "There are numerous people roaming Bang-kok's streets each day, we cannot tell that." The movie theatre complex near Ratchayothin Intersection has seen two bomb attacks since the coup on September 19 last year. The first was on New Year's Eve, when eight other bombs were set off elsewhere. On that night, a bomb was planted in a McDonald's restaurant inside the complex. The bomb used on Monday night had no shrapnel and only caused a loud explosion, unlike the one planted in the McDonald's outlet on December 31. Quoting police ordnance experts, Jongrak said the bomb was similar to the ones planted a few months ago at the Democrat Party headquarters and the Si Sao Thewes residence of Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda. "But final confirmation whether they were made by the same people is not available yet," he said. Council for National Security (CNS) chairman General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said there was "nothing worrying" about the bomb at the Major Cineplex Ratchayothin complex, as it was a non-lethal type, generally known as a "giant firework". He dismissed a police Special Branch conclusion that the bomb was a warning sign of more politically-motivated violence, saying such a negative comment would only worsen the situation in the country. Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Jarungwat said an Australian government's travel advisory to its citizens working and living in Bangkok was not regarded as an overreaction to the bomb on Monday, although it had caused some adverse affects for Thailand.
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