[Bangkok Post] Thai security forces killed a suspect in the May bombing of Big C Supercenter during a raid in Pattani province on Wednesday. The shooting occurred when security forces were searching for suspects at a mosque in tambon Paka Harang in Muang district. Behind the mosque, a group of five or so men were resting on hammocks and bamboo beds. As the authorities approached them, they fled, and both sides exchanged gunfire.
One man was killed instantly. He was Suding Mama of Nong Chik district. Officials identified him as one of the suspects wanted in the Big C Supercenter bombing on May 9. Military spokesman Komet Ratanapongsai said that local villagers told authorities that the suspects went into hiding at the mosque on Tuesday evening.
Authorities think 15 people were behind the Big C bombing, which wounded 80 people. The blast came from two cooking gas cylinders stuffed with explosives that had been placed on a pickup truck stolen from a merchant from Yala province. The vendor was brutally murdered after the theft on the same day of the bombing.