 Security stepped up after Bangkok bombing
A nationwide security alert was issued across Thailand after a bomb exploded outside a Bangkok shopping centre that was also hit in a wave of New Year's Eve attacks, officials said Tuesday.
The device blew up at a telephone booth in front of the Major Cineplex Ratchayothin shopping centre on the northern outskirts of the city late Monday.
No one was injured.
"There is a row of three phone booths and the bomb exploded in one of them. The glass was shattered, but there were no casualties," Bangkok city police spokesman Colonel Supisan Pakdinarunart said.
The shopping centre was among nine places in Bangkok bombed on New Year's Eve, when three people were killed and dozens injured in blasts around the capital.
Those attacks were followed by a coordinated arson and bombing spree across the insurgency-hit southern provinces at the start of the Lunar New Year in February.
The incidents left nine dead and 44 injured and were blamed on Islamic separatists.
Interior Minister Aree Wongariya declined to speculate about who might be behind the latest blast, but said he had ordered all of Thailand's provinces to boost security for the upcoming Buddhist New Year holiday.
"We have to provide security everywhere. I have ordered all provincial governors to be on alert, and have dispatched our informants to find out about any more possible attacks," he said.
The army has for months warned of possible attacks during the Buddhist New Year celebrations, which begin Friday and run for five days.
But Thailand's top security official, Prakit Prachonpachanuk, who heads the National Security Council, quickly dismissed speculation that the blast was connected to Muslim separatists.
"This has nothing to do with the unrest in the south. It's just a minor disturbance. We have to wait for the police investigation to find the real motive of the bomber, but I can reassure you that it's not connected with the south," he told reporters.
Prakit refused to rule out the possibility that the blast was linked to the New Year's Eve attacks in Bangkok, and urged residents in the capital to be more vigilant during the holiday.
He said Monday's blast would not likely prompt the government to declare a state of emergency in Bangkok.
"We have to be prudent about declaring a state of emergency, and consider whether it's appropriate in response to the situation," he said.
Thailand's junta leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin had urged the government to declare an emergency in Bangkok to crack down on small protests against the military regime.
So far, the government has refused.
Source : Yahoo! Singapore
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Thailand is getting more and more dangerous now. Those who intend to go there for holiday .. ermm.. think twice?
Last edited by Mochalicious : 10-04-2007 at 02:08 PM.
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