Thai police say they are certain man in yellow shirt seen on CCTV leaving a backpack at Hindu shrine was responsible for blast that killed 20 people

Thai police have released a detailed electronic sketch of the suspected Bangkok bomber who they believe killed 20 people when he left explosives at a shrine on Monday.

The image shows a thin man with dark, shaggy hair and a light complexion, wearing black-rimmed glasses and wristbands on both arms. His ethnicity is not clearly recognisable and police have said the suspect could be Thai or foreign.

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Police say they believe the bomber might have had accomplices and are offering a one million baht (£17,935) reward for anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest of the bomber.

“We suspect he is the bomber,” national police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said of the young man in a yellow T-shirt and shorts who appeared on CCTV footage time-stamped minutes before the explosion on Monday evening.



“We are also looking for other suspects in connection with the blast. These types of attacks are not usually planned by one person alone,” he added.

The security camera footage shows a man sitting on a bench and taking off a large, black backpack. He then stands up and walks away before checking his phone.

The national police chief, Somyot Poompanmoung, said investigators have not been able to establish the nationality of the man with the backpack, or whether he is still in the country.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bangkok shrine bombing suspect seen in CCTV video footage. Link to video.

“I am confident that there are Thais involved but I am not saying it is just Thais or that there are foreigners,” he told a news conference. He said it was not clear yet if a small second explosion in Bangkok, on Tuesday, was linked to the first.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Erawan shrine, a major attraction for both Hindus and Buddhists from Thailand and around Asia, especially China. The explosion, the most deadly in Thailand’s recent history, tore through the shrine, killing people on motorbikes in the street and passersby.



On Wednesday morning, the site reopened. People lit candles and placed flower garlands at the base of the small shrine on the corner of a busy downtown intersection. The government has promised to repair the image of Brahma on the shrine, which suffered only minor damage to the chin and right arm.

In the early evening on Tuesday, a small explosive device appeared to have been thrown towards a pier from the Taksin bridge in the Thai capital, heightening concerns about continuing strikes on the capital.

Security camera footage showed people on a walkway at the Sathorn pier being showered with water after the object fell into the Chao Phraya river. A government spokesman said that both bombs used TNT but no link has been made to Monday’s attack and no one was hurt.

An Australian actor who lives in Bangkok called Sunny Burns, said on his Facebook page that because people thought he looked like the man in the CCTV footage, he was receiving death threats on social media.



“All my private information from immigration was leaked online and people were looking for me – they even knew my home address,” he said. “I’m still in total shock and being called a terrorist.”



Burns said he went to the Thai police, who searched his house and then released him. He released a photograph on his Instagram account that he said showed him talking to police.

A massive security breach, metres from luxury malls and five-star hotels in the heart of the capital, poses a major challenge to the military junta that seized power in May last year. The government has promised to bring security and stability after months of violent political turmoil.

The prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, told media the attack was “the worst incident that has ever happened in Thailand”.

“There have been minor bombs or just noise, but this time they aimed for innocent lives,” he said. “They want to destroy our economy, our tourism.”

As the attack has no precedent in Thailand, it has been hard for police and observers to suggest a motive. The country’s army chief said on Tuesday that the attack did not bear the hallmarks of Muslim separatists in the south who have been waging an insurgency for years. Violence has been used by Thai political groups, but a large-scale bombing is unheard of.

Somyot suggested authorities were also looking at ethnic Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from China’s western Xinjiang region, many of whom have fled to south-east Asia.

Thailand forcibly returned 109 Uighurs to China in July, angering the community and causing an outcry from human rights groups and the United Nations who said they could face persecution and abuse.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Unverified footage shows the moment a suspected bomb detonated in Thailand less than 24 hours after a blast at Erawan Shrine in Bangkok

“Police are not ruling out anything including (Thai) politics and the conflict of ethnic Uighurs who, before this, Thailand sent back to China,” Somyot said.

At least 11 foreigners were killed in the explosion, with Chinese, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Indonesian and Malaysian citizens among the dead.



The British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said on Tuesday that a UK national, a resident of Hong Kong, lost her life in the attack.

The British embassy in Bangkok updated its travel advice. “You should monitor news reports, follow the advice of the local authorities and take extra care,” the embassy said. “There is a high threat from terrorism.”



Four members of a Malaysian family died in the attack, Thai media reported. Neoh Hock Guan, from Penang, told the Bangkok Post that his family was visiting the Erawan shrine on the last night of their holiday.

Neoh found the bodies of his wife, son, son-in-law and five-year-old niece at hospitals in Bangkok. His wife’s sister was still missing. The paper named five Thai nationals who were also killed but added that some bodies had still not been identified.

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The Thai government has offered financial compensation to the wounded and the families of the dead, both Thais and foreigners.

Marik Foudijs, a 24-year-old backpacker from the Netherlands, said he was staying in the Khaosan Road, the backpacker centre of Bangkok, when the bomb detonated. The army moved in with vehicles but the party continued, with bars open into the early hours.

“It won’t affect the backpackers but maybe families with small children will decide not to come,” he said.

Reacting to the bombing, Thailand’s baht currency slumped to a more than six-year low and shares fell in Bangkok.