Police release sketch of Bangkok bombing suspect

Jane Onyanga-Omara | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Was the Bangkok bombing driven by political violence? An insurgency in southern Thailand and deep political divisions in the capital form the backdrop to the deadly bombing in Bangkok. Video provided by Newsy

Police in Thailand on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant and released a sketch of the man they believe carried out the bombing at a popular shrine in central Bangkok that killed 20 people.

Police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri tweeted that a 1 million baht reward ($28,080) is being offered for information on the perpetrators.

The arrest warrant was issued for the “unidentified foreign man” Wednesday, but police said they're not sure the suspect is from another country, the Associated Press reported.

"He didn't do it alone, for sure. It's a network," national police chief Somyot Poompanmoung said at a news conference, referring to the main suspect. "Hopefully, he is still in Thailand."

On Tuesday, authorities released surveillance video images of the man they believe to be the bomber wearing a yellow T-shirt and leaving a backpack under a bench just before Monday's explosion.

Thai police on Wednesday said they called in two or three people — mostly foreigners — for questioning as the manhunt for the suspect continued. , according to the AP.

Monday's deadly explosion at the Erawan Shrine — located in a busy shopping and tourism district — wounded nearly 130 people. On Tuesday, a second bomb detonated in the Thai capital, although there were no reports of injuries. Nobody has claimed responsibility for either blast.

The Bangkok Post, citing unnamed sources, had said the police investigation into Monday's blast was focusing on a motive of revenge by Uighur militants, after the Thai government deported Chinese Muslim immigrants to Beijing in July. Critics have said that heavy-handed Chinese rule and economic disenfranchisement have pushed some ethnic Muslim minority Uighurs in the Xinjiang region of northwest China toward extremism.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha dismissed the connection, however, saying that an Uighur group would have claimed responsibility for the attack.





Prawut told the Bangkok Post that Tuesday's pipe bomb was probably meant to land on a busy platform leading to a pier, but hit a pillar and bounced into a canal, sending a large plume of water into the air.

Somyot said the two blasts were carried out by the same perpetrators, some of whom could be foreigners, the Bangkok Post reported. The shrine reopened to the public Wednesday. A stream of worshipers and Buddhist monks arrived to pray at the Hindu religious site, which is popular with locals and Chinese tourists.

Contributing: John Bacon