Australian man, Sunny Burns, became a prime suspect in the Bangkok bombings after social media pointed the finger at him. Sunny describes his ordeal on Sunrise. Courtesy: Sunrise/Channel Seven

Australian man, Sunny Burns, became a prime suspect in the Bangkok bombings after social media pointed the finger at him. Sunny describes his ordeal on Sunrise. Courtesy: Sunrise/Channel Seven

AN AUSTRALIAN model and actor has told of his terror after being mistakenly identified as the Bangkok bombing suspect on social media.

Sunny Burns says he handed himself in to Thai police amid rumours he was the man pictured on CCTV apparently planting a bomb near Erawan Shrine in an attack that killed at least 20 and injured 123 people.

“In social media they posted my immigration papers, they posted where I live, I had no other choice to go to police,” Mr Burns told Channel Seven’s Sunrise.

“People were accusing me of being a terrorist and killing those 20 people, injuring over 100 people, I had no other choice.

“I thought ‘oh my God this is a set up ... I’m going to be like Schapelle Corby, the terrorist version.’

“It was that stressful that I had to go straight to police and basically say ‘Hi, I’m Sunny and I’m not a terrorist.”

Mr Burns, who is little known in Australia but has shot a film in Thailand, said he was quizzed by Thai police for six hours, despite speaking little of the language.

He said they asked him about his religion, where he had been at the time of the attack and where in Australia he was from.

“Police were amazing, they went to my house and searched for bombs.

“It was really the social media that made this bigger than Ben Hur.”

Earlier, Mr Burns posted a picture of himself on his Instagram and Facebook accounts saying he was talking with police and being treated well.

“I forgive everyone who spread those horrible rumours about me,” he said. “I love this country and let’s fight together. Let’s find this bomber. I’m not a terrorist.”

Mr Burns claims to have handed himself in after an image comparing him to the suspect began to circulate online.

He told Storyful he was “absolutely not” the man in the CCTV footage saying “I would never wear those clothes for starters.”

“I’m not a terrorist and the photo of the terrorist looks nothing like me. I would never wear those clothing [sic] — I’m a fashion blogger ... I’ll keep you posted but please pray for Thailand. I’m Australian and we are battlers ... I still love you Thailand,” he wrote online.

Australian English teacher Sunny Burns was wrongly fingered by some as #BangkokBlast suspect. Says he spoke to police pic.twitter.com/5O522H9Vcx — reported.ly (@reportedly) August 18, 2015

Earlier Thai authorities released an image of the suspect in the deadly bombing at Erawan Shrine that killed at least 20 and injured 123 people at the holy site.

Thailand’s Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha said they are looking for a young man seen near the shrine and CCTV images showed the man slipping off a backpack on a bench nearby.

Thai Police Lt Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri told AP the “yellow shirt guy is not just the suspect. He is the bomber.”

The government has also said the suspect is from an “anti-government group based in Thailand’s northeast” which is a stronghold for the red shirt movement who are opposed to the military-run government.

However political experts warned government claims about the alleged attacker need to be taken with a grain of salt.

London School of Economics Professor Tim Forsyth, who specialises in Thailand and South East Asia, said it conveniently allocates blame for the attack for which no one has claimed responsibility so far.

“In the last few hours the Thai government has said they’ve seen someone on CCTV who looks Middle Eastern walking into the shrine with a rucksack and coming out without the rucksack,” he told news.com.au.

“I don’t know, obviously, but it sounds ridiculously contrived to me.”

“I rather suspect that the military government will be under pressure to come up with a nice fast digestible explanation for this so blaming it on Islamic terrorists sounds wonderful, but we’ll have to see.”

London’s Queen Mary University senior lecturer in international relations Dr Lee Jones said while he hasn’t seen any evidence so far, it's “far too early” to be pointing fingers.

“It’s very convenient for a quite beleaguered military regime to say ‘well the security situation in Bangkok is so bad we’re going to have to stay in power.’”

“It suits the regime to rush to judgment and blame the red shirts and give itself an excuse to cling to power but we need to see the evidence really.”

Dr Jones said there are four “broad possibilities” for who could be behind the bombing.

One is the red shirts of the country’s northeast, who staged a demonstration at the same intersection the bombing took place in 2010 where 90 lives were lost. The group is largely made up of poor rural and urban people loyal to the previous Shinawatra government. They have been blamed for bombings on government buildings before — though never ones that target foreigners.

The second is the Muslim insurgency in the south of the country where more than 6000 people have died since 2004. However, an attack outside of the southern provinces for this group would also be a first.

The third is an Islamic State or al-Qaeda style extremist attack. However, as no-one has come forward to claim responsibility, Dr Jones said it lacks the “hallmarks” of the group. The fourth possibility is some kind of “wildcard” such as retribution for a recent decision to return Muslim Uighur refugees to China.

Prof. Forsyth said while the perpetrators remain a mystery, the location is significant as it’s unlikely westerners were the target at a Hindu shrine frequented by Thai Buddhists and Chinese visitors.

“If you wanted to make an anti-West statement you’d blow up a beach resort or you’d blow up the street with all the backpacker hostels, you wouldn’t blow up the Erawan Shrine, which is good Buddhists kneeling and praying,” he said.

At least 11 foreigners from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore among the 20 killed in the attack.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australia “strongly condemns” the attack and the Government will work to “strengthen our bilateral and regional counterterrorism cooperation.”

The Government has also issued a warning to travellers to exercise a high degree of caution in the country and do not travel to Yala, Pattani, Narathiwt and Songkhla regions.

For the latest updates and travel advice on Thailand check the Smart Traveller website.