They included children who fell to the ground in terror. Body parts are scattered around the Erawan Shrine near shopping malls and five-star hotels in Bangkok's Chitlom district. Carnage ... A policeman photographs debris from an explosion in central Bangkok, Thailand. Credit:AP The explosion occurred around 7pm (10pm Melbourne and Sydney time) when the area is usually packed with people. Police said initial reports were that the blast may have been caused by a motorcycle bomb. Witnesses said people at a shrine were hit by the full force of the blast.

The shrine adjacent Ratchaprasong intersection, where political demonstrations have taken place in the past is a major tourist attraction. The area has been cordoned off by police. Ambulances were at the scene. Motorcycles are strewn about after an explosion at a central Bangkok intersection during the evening rush hour, killing a number of people and injuring others, police said. Credit:AP "It was like a meat market," said Marko Cunningham, a New Zealand paramedic working with a Bangkok ambulance service, who said the blast had left a two-metre-wide crater. "There were bodies everywhere. Some were shredded. There were legs where heads were supposed to be. It was horrific," Cunningham said, adding that people several hundred metres away had been injured. Debris lies on the pavement after the explosion took place near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok. Credit:AP

Winai Petploy, a rescue worker who arrived to carry away the remains of the dead, said authorities discovered two unexploded bombs inside the Erawan Shrine after he had arrived, The New York Times reported. Other reports were that the two unexploded bombs were found near the shine. The bombs were in small travel bags. Police yelled "get, get out" to bystanders as bomb squad personnel worked to defuse them. Police have not confirmed earlier Thai reports that two other bombs were found near the shrine and had been defused. The device that detonated was also inside the shrine.

"I carried one out and then I carried the other half out," Mr Winai said. Injured victims were taken to seven hospitals. The area has been cordoned off by police. Ambulances are at the scene. The blast could be heard a kilometre away. At least one of the dead is believed to have been a guest of a hotel near the blast.

Caroen Sida, 37, a security guard, said after the blast "everyone was screaming and running." "There was a huge force coming from a motorcycle. No-one dared go into the intersection," he said. "The perpetrators intended to destroy the economy and tourism because the incident occurred in the heart of the tourist district," Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told Reuters. The government would set up a "war room" to coordinate the response to the blast, the Nation television channel quoted Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha as saying.

Two people from China and one from the Philippines were among the dead, a tourist police officer said. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has issued a statement on the bombing. "The Australian Government deplores the attack in Bangkok." "The thoughts of all Australians are with the injured and the families of those who have lost their lives. "The Australian Embassy in Bangkok is in contact with Thai authorities to determine whether Australians have been affected.

"At stage we have no information that Australians are among the deceased or seriously injured." Thailand has been ruled by a military government since the army toppled democratically-elected government last year. The bomb will inflame political tensions in the country and will likely damage Thailand's tourist industry that had recovered from month's of political instability last year. The military government is likely to react with a security clampdown, possibly martial law. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

A bomb that exploded in an underground car park of a shopping mall on the Thai tourist island of Samui on April 10 has been linked to a long running and bloody insurgency in the country's Malay-dominated southern provinces. Thai forces are fighting a low-level Muslim insurgency in the predominantly Buddhist country's south, although the insurgents had rarely in the past ventured out of the provinces. But security experts said the Samui bomb appeared to be an attempt to sabotage an area of economic significance, which is known to be one of the militants' strategies. The country has also been riven for a decade by intense and sometimes violent rivalry between political factions in Bangkok and elsewhere. The Erawan Shrine, on a busy corner near top hotels, shopping centres and offices, is a major tourist attraction, especially for visitors from East Asia. Many ordinary Thais also worship there.