Two time bombs found near Criminal Court

The first one was found at around 7am by a Bangkok Metropolitan Administration street cleaner in a bus stop outside the Office of Public Prosecutors Region 1, while security officials at the Criminal Court found the second one outside the front wall at about 9.30am. The bombs were placed a kilometre apart. Ratchadaphisek Road was closed to traffic while Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officers defused the bombs.

Police spokesman Pol Maj Gen Anucha Ramayanon said fire extinguishers had been used to build the bombs. They were filled with 15 kilograms of explosives and an alarm clock was attached to each bomb. 

EOD chief Pol Colonel Kamthorn Uicharoen said the explosions could have affected a radius of 20-40 metres, adding that investigators believed the same people were behind both bombs, though police had not yet established the motive. 

He said the bombs were similar to those found in the restive South. 

Although the alarm clock attached to the first bomb was set at 9am, it is still unknown what time the bomb was set to explode, he said.

Metropolitan Police Bureau chief Lt-General Camronwit Toopgrajank has ordered officials to investigate the incident closely to find the wrongdoers, adding that images captured on closed-circuit TV nearby should also be studied carefully. 

In a previous incident on February 14, an M79 grenade was fired into a room on the seventh floor of the Criminal Court. On February 23, a grenade was found in the car park of the Civil Court, which is also on Ratchadaphisek Road. 

On March 3, a grenade was lobbed over the fence into the Criminal Court’s car park, while another was dropped on the footpath outside.