TUESDAY, March 19, 2024
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Updated: Bangkok hit by series of blasts, small fires on Friday morning

Updated: Bangkok hit by series of blasts, small fires on Friday morning

In the latest development of the Bangkok blast, Deputy National Police chief Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul has been chosen to head an investigative panel tasked with probing the recent Bangkok blasts.

National Police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda signed an order on Saturday to set up the investigative panel, comprising 14 other police generals plus junior investigators. 

Updated: Bangkok hit by series of blasts, small fires on Friday morning  Deputy National Police chief Pol General Srivara

The order stated that this special panel has been created to investigate the planting of two fake bombs in front of the Royal Thai Police Headquarters at 3.45pm on Thursday and a series of bomb blasts at a government office, a community areas and public areas in Bangkok on Friday morning.

Bangkok was hit by a series of bomb blasts and small fires beginning early on Friday, a day after a bomb scare in front of the Royal Thai Police headquarters. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha pleaded with the public on Friday morning not to panic and instructed police to rush to bring those behind a series of bombings in Bangkok to justice, the government spokesman said.
Prayut, who is also the defence minister, additionally ordered police to investigate the incidents and to step up security, and requested that the public report any irregularities that they observe.
The first incident happened at 7.05am in front of the Government Complex in the Chaeng Wattana area.
Officials there heard three explosions. The first two explosions were heard nearly simultaneously, with a third explosion coming a moment later. 
The Thung Song Hong police station was at 7:05am alerted to the explosions in the park fronting Building B of the complex in Thung Song Hong sub-district. The explosions damaged trees.
Police cordoned off the area for officers from the explosive ordnance disposal unit to examine the scene and they found that homemade bombs had been used.
No casualties were reported in this incident.
At 8:36am, a further two explosions occurred near Chong Nonsee station on the BTS Skytrain line.
Police said an explosion occurred in front of the Mahanakhon Building near the station, with a second going off in a sidewalk garden under the station.
The blast caused the soil from the spot to spill out onto the sidewalk, as well as creating a crack in a glass panel at the station.
The BTS station closed its Gates 2 and 4 following the explosions.
Police deputy spokesman Pol Colonel Kritsana Pattanacharoen said two people were injured in the Chong Nonsee blasts. One was sent to the Chulalongkorn Hospital, while the other was treated at the scene for slight injuries and let go.
Kritsana said police also found metal pellets at the site of the Chong Nonsee blasts.
Then at 8.50am, two road sweepers in Suan Luang district were injured in an explosion on Soi Rama IX 57/1, a soi off Rama IX road.

After examining the area, police determined that the explosion was caused by a ping-pong bomb.
Earlier in the day, police reported that four small fires had broken out in Pratunam area ahead of a Police Commission meeting, which was scheduled to be chaired by the prime minister at the nearby Royal Thai Police headquarters.
No one was injured by the fires, the causes of which have yet to be determined.
The first fire broke out at 5.18am in a single-storey building on Soi Phetchaburi 19.
Half an hour later, at 5.38am, another fire was spotted at the Indra Regent Hotel on Soi Ratchaprarop in Ratchathevi district.
Then at 5.41am, flames started coming out of a pile of clothes under the Indra Regent Hotel building.
Police said another fire broke out at the Chalerm Larp Market nearby at 7am.
All the incidents followed a bomb scare in front of the Royal Thai Police headquarters on Thursday evening, in which a man dropped two boxes under a Police sign which were later determined to contain fake bombs.
Two suspects were arrested on a bus in Chomphon that originated in Bangkok.
Kritsana, a deputy Police spokesman, said police investigators were checking whether all of the blast incidents were related, as well as if they were also related to the bomb scare incident in front of the Royal Thai police building on Thursday.

 

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