Police looking for two men who hurled ping pong bombs near PM’s residence

Security camera footage showed two men riding a motorcycle to the front gate of the regiment and the pillion rider hurling two ping pong bombs into the compound at 7.50pm on Sunday, Government Spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said on Monday.

The two bombs landed on the lawn in front of the security booth of the regiment. No one was injured from the small explosions.

Thanakorn said the regiment has filed a complaint with police, who are still trying to identify the assailants whose faces were concealed by their crash helmets.

The spokesman said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had no comment about the incident and had not give any special orders. The prime minister only assigned police to investigate the incident in accordance with normal procedure, the spokesman said.

Thanakorn said Prayut would continue to work in his official residence in the compound of the regiment during the long Songkran holidays and would be on stand by to give orders to government agencies in case of emergency.

Following the incident, police of the Tha Rua Police Station arrested a man, identified as Thanayut, 20, after he injured himself with a ping pong bomb that fell from his pocket. Police have withheld his surname.

The man was walking home in the Rom Klao community in Klong Toei district when a ping pong bomb fell from the right pocket of his trousers and exploded on Sunday night. He was slightly injured.

Police searched his house and found 172 ping pong bombs and 23 smoke bombs.

Police interrogated the man and concluded that he was not the one who had hurled the bombs into the First Infantry Regiment compound, but they believe he might know the suspects.

Police are using information from Thanayut to try to locate the two suspects.