Last update - 00:00 31/12/2006
Two killed, 33 injured as eight bomb blasts rock Bangkok
By The Associated Press
Two bombs exploded in Bangkok just after midnight on Sunday, wounding seven people, including six foreigners, a television station reported early Monday.
The explosions came a few hours after six other bombs went off across the Thai capital, killing at least two people and injuring at least 26, police and health officials said.
The two later bombs went off near Central World Plaza, a sprawling downtown shopping mall, iTV said. One of the injured foreigners, a woman, lost her leg in the explosion, it said.
The culprits and motive were unknown.
The bombings in several parts of city capped a year of unrest in Thailand, including a military coup three months ago and a mounting Muslim insurgency in the south.
National police chief General Ajirawit Suphanaphesat confirmed on the iTV television network that six blasts occurred, and that authorities were inspecting several more locations where there were suspicious packages.
"The bombings exploded almost simultaneously. It must have been planned," Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told reporters as he visited the injured at one hospital. He said it was too early to conclude who was behind the bombings.
Police Lt. Gen. Chongrak Juranond said one person died at Chulalongkorn hospital. Another police officer, Lt. Col. Teerawit Butsaban, said a second person at another hospital.
A senior Thai health ministry official, Surachet Sathitniramai, said that more than 20 people had been hospitalized at four Bangkok hospitals.
Bangkok's biggest New Year celebration, at the Central World Plaza shopping mall complex, was canceled and authorities told thousands of celebrants who had been gathering there to go home.
Ajirawit said six people were injured by a bomb in the slum area of Klong Toey, and four by a bomb near a department store at the Victory Monument, which is on a major traffic circle.
He said other blasts occurred near a police post in the Saphan Kwai district, where two were injured, and in Kae Lai district in Nonthaburi, a northern suburb of Bangkok.
Hotels stepped up security, searching cars on their premises.
The police chief said that "the situation remains under control," but cautioned those out celebrating to exercise caution and to notify police immediately if they find suspicious objects.
Bombings and shootings occur almost daily in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where an Islamic insurgency that flared in January 2004 has killed more than 1,900 people. But Ajirawit said the insurgents were probably not behind Sunday's attacks.
Muslims make up the majority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand's deep south, where they have long complained of discrimination.