Bombs rattle tourist district
February 15, 2012 by Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit
Filed under News, Thailand
BANGKOK, 15 February 2012: Bombs rattled a popular tourist district in downtown Bangkok, Tuesday afternoon, resulting in embassies in Thailand reinstating their travel warnings to citizens to maintain a heightened awareness when visiting the Thai capital.
US citizens were told to monitor the Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet website, that posts worldwide cautions and travel alerts.
Meanwhile, the British Embassy in Bangkok issued a travel advisory within hours of the explosions.
Police reported the first explosion occurred in a house on Sukhumvit Soi 71 after three men ran from the house, and one of them, initially identified as Saeid Moradi,28, tried to hail a taxi.
When the taxi failed to stop, he threw a grenade at it, only to have it bounce off the car and explode severing his legs. In addition, shrapnel wounded five adult passers-by. He threw a third bomb at a police van near Kasem Phitthaya School, but no students were injured.
Police later said they arrested Mohammad Hazaei, 42, a male, Iranian citizen, at Suvarnabhumi Airport as he was about to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur. He is now under interrogation. A third male suspect remains at large.
Bangkok police chief Pol Lt-General , Winai Thongsong, said a search at the rented house turned up an unspecified amount of C-4 explosives and some home-made bombs.
In Moradi’s backpack, police found clothing; receipts issued to a Yasef Moradi by a hotel in Pattaya; Bt8,500 and US$2,800 in cash; and a large amount of cash in Iranian currency.
Much to the media’s surprise, prime minister deputy general secretary, Thitima Chaisang, denied the incidents were acts of terrorism.
“This is not sabotage or related to recent travel advisories issued after last month’s terrorism scare.”
She added: “Intelligence analysis said the suspects were arguing with one another and the incidents is being treated as normal crimes.”
Critics will treat this as a ridiculous response considering the C-4 explosives were used taking the incident well out of the arena of “normal crimes”.
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Thanee Thongphakdee, said an official conclusion on the incidents would be made soon to determine the specific nature of the crimes. “Don’t jump to the conclusion that this was an act of terrorism.”
Police last month arrested Atris Hussein, a Lebanese man with Swedish nationality whom they said had ties to Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group based in Lebanon, and suggested he might have been involved in setting up a terror plot in Thailand. Hezbollah later denied any links with Hussein.
The govt have their head in the sand…but I guess their “all under control” message by the deputy PM has come back to haunt them! And a UK TA now… what’s the point in that? Back-sides are NOT covered!
And just to put a human touch to the tragedy of this story this all took place on my doorstep… TAT mentioned it was not in a tourist spot so all is well…! My home, my soi…don’t spin it for dollars please but lets use the experience to share, talk, co-ordinate! •AJWood•
TTR Weekly is meant to be a reputable LOCAL tourism publication. One that we would hope would get the story right when reporting on tourism matters from Thailand. Under the alarming headline “Bombs rattle tourist district” we find Khun Wanwisa describing the mid Sukhumvit Soi 71 area as “a popular tourist district in downtown Bangkok”… Really?
There are no tourists in this area, there are no tourist hotels in this area. I should know. This is where I live. The guy blew his own legs off 200 metres from my door.
Please tell me what you would consider to be the nearest tourist attraction to the mid Sukhumvit Soi 71 area that you can bring to mind? How many kilometres away would that be? 10 km? More?
And where would one say “downtown Bangkok” is exactly? Ratchaprasong? Silom/Rama 4 intersection? And how far away is that from mid Sukhumvit Soi 71? 10 km? More?
Why such an alarmist headline? Whatever happened to FACTUAL reporting and getting the story straight?
((
This must have been written by someone in New Jersey. Sukhumvit 71 is hardly “downtown” or a “popular tourist district.” It’s slightly north of nowhere. Tourists have absolutely no reason to go there unless they are completely lost and I cannot think of a single embassy in that area. The area is more than 6km from Wireless Road, where many embassies are concentrated.
There are also some factual errors in the story that conflict with official police reports. Moradi did, indeed, throw a grenade at a taxi. (I have been tempted to do so myself from time to time, as you can easily understand if you live in Bangkok.) However, soon thereafter he threw a grenade at pursuing police. It bounced off a passing truck and that is when his legs were blown off.
The Iranian government was quick to deny any involvement with the incident, probably since it is practically comical. Terrorism schools are apparently not what they used to be.
Once again the media are suggesting that large parts of Bangkok have been vaporized and that there must be tanks in the streets of Pattaya. The headline and first paragraph of this story do little to help.
Great to see you expose the Thai Government Officials trying to downplay the word “terrorism”. Once the Thai Police find out the real target(s), most likely a diplomat, maybe they will concede that it is terrorism.
But, since the plot will only have targeted an individual, the Thai Government will say that it was just a criminal act, and not terrorism.
After all, the word terrorism hurts tourism.
The apparent terror act is certainly despicable but the headline “Bombs rattle tourist district” makes it even worse because Sukhumvit Soi 71 is a residential area and hardly a place where there are lots of tourists. But then of course to endangering other people’s lives by building bombs is pure evil.
Since when was Sukhumvit Soi 71 a “popular tourist district”? There’s nothing whatsoever for a tourist to see there, there are no hotels that I know of, and the shopping would not pull any tourists either.
You might expect some foreign media to make such an error but what is TTR doing creating an imaginary tourist danger spot and presenting it for international consumption?
Thitima Chaisang gets the prize for the worst liar in Thailand today. She recently lost her job as spokesman for the English-deficient prime minister but was kicked upstairs pending a replacement being dumb enough to take on the role. For Titima and her ilk it is fine to make it up, nothing to see here, move along, flee the scene. Bombs in Bangkok are nothing new, it is the scabrous lies being told about them that make for worrying reading.