A bomb planted at one of the Thai capital's most renowned shrines on Monday killed 22 people, including eight foreign tourists, and wounded more than 100 in an attack the government called a bid to destroy the economy. The blast occurred at about 6:30 pm when the streetside shrine was packed with worshippers and tourists. At least eight of those killed and many injured are thought to be Chinese and Taiwanese tourists. "Whoever planted this bomb is cruel and aimed to kill," said national police chief Somyot Poompummuang. "Planting a bomb there means they want to see a lot of people dead." Officials initially believed that a second bomb had been found in a bag nearby, but closer investigation determined that the suspicious package was harmless. As yet, there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. Authorities have not ruled out any group, including elements opposed to the military government, but officials said the bombing did not match tactics used by insurgents in the predominantly Buddhist south. Thailand's junta chief on Tuesday said authorities are hunting a "suspect" seen on CCTV footage near the scene of the bombing. "Today there is a suspect who appeared on CCTV but it's not clear... we are looking for this guy," he said, adding the suspect was believed to be from an "anti-government group based in Thailand's northeast"—the heartland of the kingdom's anti-coup Red Shirt movement. Thai forces have been fighting a low-level Muslim insurgency in the country's south, although those rebels have rarely launched attacks outside their ethnic Malay heartland. Thailand is also subject to a long-running political conflict which broadly pits the Bangkok-based middle class and royalist elite, backed by parts of the military and judiciary, against rural and working-class voters – many of whom are part of the Red Shirt movement – loyal to ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Small bomb blasts have occurred in the capital during times of heightened tension – with all factions accusing each other of resorting to violence. In the past five years, the city has been subject to about a dozen attacks, with the deadliest taking place in October, 2010, when a blast in an apartment complex killed four people. According to witnesses to Monday's massive blast, body parts were scattered across the street after the explosion outside the Erawan Shrine in the downtown Chidlom district. Charred and shattered motorcycles littered the scene, along with broken glass. Bomb ‘targeted foreigners' Thailand's defence minister, Prawit Wongsuwong, said that: "The people who did it targeted foreigners and to damage tourism and the economy." He added that the blast had been caused by a TNT bomb. Reporting from Bangkok, FRANCE 24's Ismail Wolff said that many of the scores of people injured in the blast are thought to be foreigners. "There are many Chinese tourists here," he said, adding that although Bangkok has been subject to similar attacks in the past, "this is the most lethal and largest such attack that we've seen in the capital in recent memory. At least decades." The Erawan is an enormously popular shrine to the Hindu god Brahma but is visited by thousands of Buddhist devotees every day. It is located on a main road through Bangkok's commercial hub and is surrounded by three major shopping malls.
