Article

2006-12-31 Southeast Asia

Multiple Bombs Exploding in Downtown Bangkok New Years Eve

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Posted by Lone Ranger 2006-12-31 08:15|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Origami for Peace to be fired up again in the New Year?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-12-31 10:36|| 2006-12-31 10:36|| Front Page Top

#2 As a rule of thumb, bomb size and intent are big indicators of who planted them. If they were small and planted in garbage cans away from crowds, they are probably intended just as noisemakers and disrupters, probably put there by agents provocateurs.

If they are built to kill lots of people and are large size, they are terrorists.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-12-31 10:37|| 2006-12-31 10:37|| Front Page Top

#3 Stay safe, Lone Ranger. Hopefully 2007 will go better.

the global Islamic terrorist pestilence That's a keeper!

Sky News reports there's been an arrest

Police investigating six bomb explosions in the Thai capital, Bangkok, have arrested a man, according to Sky sources. It is believed he was carrying an explosive device when he was picked up.

Two people were killed and at least 20 others injured in the series of blasts. They all took place within an hour of each other. One bomb was planted under a seat at a bus stop outside a shopping mall. Another went off near a police booth. A third was placed in a trash can at a market in the port district and wounded five, including a 10-year-old child.

Posted by trailing wife 2006-12-31 11:21|| 2006-12-31 11:21|| Front Page Top

#4 I disagree as I think these will turn out to be muzzie acts.

Posted by Brett 2006-12-31 12:20|| 2006-12-31 12:20|| Front Page Top

#5 Hearing reports of another device going off approx. 20 mins ago and that a foreigner was seriously injured. Location was a high end shopping mall, Gaysorn Plaza, located in central BKK. Local time is now 0040.

Posted by Bangkok Billy 2006-12-31 12:38|| 2006-12-31 12:38|| Front Page Top

#6 mysterious beturbanned pranksters?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-12-31 12:57|| 2006-12-31 12:57|| Front Page Top

#7 The wages of appeasement

Posted by gromgoru 2006-12-31 13:45|| 2006-12-31 13:45|| Front Page Top

#8 Happy New Year to you and Mrs. Billy, Bankok Billy. And to all other Rantburgers and worthy others in Bankok and other unsafe places.

More from the Kyodo newswire Dec 31 8:11 AM US/Eastern

At least six explosions took place in and around Bangkok on Sunday evening, causing at least 17 injuries, Thai police said, and reportedly as many as three deaths. A government spokesman confirmed a total of six explosions in the Thai capital, three of which destroyed police boxes. The bomb or grenade explosions occurred almost simultaneously at around 6 p.m. at near the Victory Monument monorail station, at the Khlong Toey wet market, in the Saphan Khwai area, at the Season Square shopping mall, in the suburb of Khae Lai and along Sukhumvit Road in northeast Bangkok.

The explosion in the Victory Monument area, where most of the injuries occurred, took place at a bus stop near an escalator linking to the Sky Train monorail station, police said. They said the explosive device was placed in a trash can.

The Nation newspaper counted a total of seven explosions and said two people were killed and 20 injured in the Victory Monument explosion, while one person was dead at the Big C supermarket in Saphan Khwai where a witness saw a man drop a grenade from a pedestrian bridge there. The report could not be independently confirmed.

At the massive Season Square shopping mall, in the east end of Bangkok, a loud explosion went off in a motorcycle parking area, injuring one person, police said.

The Nation reported that a police box was hit in an explosion near the Khae Rai intersection in Nonthaburi Province, just north of Bangkok, but there were no injuries, while yet another bomb went off in the compound of the Tesco Lotus Supermarket in the Prachachuen area of Bangkok.

From UPI
New Year celebrations were muted in Bangkok where several bombs exploded in the waning hours of 2006, killing three people and injuring at least 30.

Local media reported six simultaneous explosions around 8 p.m. local time, while police sources put the number of blasts at 15, Xinhua said. Among the sites targeted were a large shopping mall, a Chinese shrine, a supermarket, a pedestrian bridge and a bus station near Victory Monument.

Soldiers were deployed throughout the city as official celebrations and parties were canceled and department stores in downtown Bangkok -- usually open until midnight -- closed their doors early, Xinhua said.

And from the Associated Press
Just after midnight, two more bombs went off near Central World Plaza, the sprawling mall in downtown Bangkok where the largest public festivities were to take place, the iTV television network reported. Eight people were injured in the later blasts, iTV reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings.

Police and soldiers fanned out across Bangkok to guard entertainment venues and important sites. Roadblocks went up in some places. Bomb attacks are rare in the Thai capital. Several small bombs exploded during the recent political turmoil but they were apparently set to create unrest rather than cause casualties.

Bangkok's Mayor Apirak Kosayothin canceled the two major public New Year's Eve countdown celebrations and other smaller ones. "Due to several bomb explosions in Bangkok and for the sake of peace and security, I would ask all of you to return to your homes now," Apirak told some 5,000 revelers at the Central World Plaza, hours before the second set of bombs went off. The crowd began to disperse calmly.

Major public celebrations were also canceled in the northern city of Chiang Mai. "It is not worth risking," said Maj. Gen. Bandop Sukhonthaman, the provincial police chief. But festivities continued in some areas of Bangkok, including the city's most famous red light district, Patpong Road, where hundreds of foreign tourists carried on celebrating. And at midnight, fireworks lit up the sky in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai, with many residents still gathered in the streets of both cities.

Following the initial spate of bombings, police said two people died of their injuries at hospitals and Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said that 26 people were injured, including 14 treated in hospitals. Among the injured in the second set of bombings, after midnight, were six foreigners, according to officials at the Police Hospital. One, a woman, was rushed to the hospital with one of her legs blown off, iTV said.

Posted by trailing wife 2006-12-31 14:08|| 2006-12-31 14:08|| Front Page Top

#9 Thanks TW and Sawatdee Pi Mai (Happy New Year in Thai) to all. We're looking at 7 or 8 separate IEDs, up to 40 wounded (some seriously), and 3 confirmed dead. The last set of IEDs went off shortly after midnight and wounded several (6 or 7) foreigners and Thais. Knowing what I know about IEDs in this region, I do NOT think this is the work of the insurgents (I went to Bomb Camp if you know what I mean). Initial reports I'm getting say some of the IEDs were low order and relatively small. We've seen numerous small IEDs in BKK in the past 2 years - all very similar in size and triggering and politically motivated. My gut (and another more reliable source) tells me this is connected to internal Thai politics. The hard boys in the South, while capable, don't need to bomb BKK - they're doing fine. They use different types of explosives (ANFO-type) and they tend to be larger. It will be few days until I can ping a few boys in brown (aka Thai police) and see if I can't find out more.

Posted by Bangkok Billy 2006-12-31 15:13|| 2006-12-31 15:13|| Front Page Top

#10 Hay billy, is the firecracker smoke a fog this year as well? If I remember right the clowd is about five stories high and choking, but then by midnight in Bangkok I was long passed out.

Posted by 49 Pan">49 Pan 2006-12-31 16:43|| 2006-12-31 16:43|| Front Page Top

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