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Published on August 2, 2007

Searches by police did not find any suspicious items.

After the hoaxes, Bangkok deputy governor Puttipong Punnakan announced the Bangkok Metropolitan Admi-nistration (BMA) was preparing to hire security guards for about 50 schools under its management.

The BMA operates 435 schools.

"We will provide security guards for small schools as they may have too few teachers to carry out patrols," Puttipong said.

He said the BMA planned to contract the War Veterans Organisation of Thailand to provide the guards.

Two of the five schools receiving the bomb hoaxes yesterday were under BMA management.

At about 8.15am a teacher at the BMA-run Wat Srisook School answered a phone call and heard a male caller saying, "Is that Wat Srisook School? We have planted a bomb there. If you don't want to see casualties, alert parents so they can come to pick up their children."

The teacher did as the caller demanded and alerted police.

To ensure security and prevent any possibility of kidnapping, the school barred the parents from entering the compound.

Instead, teachers closed the gate and called out the students' names one by one for their parents to step forward to collect them.

Police officers were present to monitor the situation.

Wat Srisook School has 1,500 students from kindergarten level to Grade 6.

"At first, I didn't know why the school called my parents to pick me up," Grade-6 student Sarawut Prasongsri said.

Maj-General Waranwas Karunyatas, who heads the Metropolitan Police Bureau 8, said investigators believed someone was simply trying to cause disturbances.

"As far as I know, four other schools received similar bomb threats," Waranwas said.

The other schools were Wat Yairom, Pho Thong, Bangmod Wittaya and Jindasuksa. According to Waranwas, all of them received a hoax telephone call from an unidentified man.