Attack on Thai capital’s Erawan shrine killed at least four Chinese citizens, prompting Beijing to initiate ‘emergency response’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mobile phone footage of the blast believed to have been captured by a Chinese tourist. Link to video

China is demanding answers over a deadly bombing in Bangkok that killed 22 people, including at least four Chinese citizens.



The device went off at just before 7pm local time (noon GMT) on Monday at the Erawan Hindu shrine, a major tourist attraction that is popular with the millions of Chinese visitors who flock to Thailand each year.

Bangkok bomb: Thailand says identity of shrine attackers 'much clearer' Read more

The devastating force of the explosion – which scattered body parts and debris across a busy intersection in central Bangkok – was caught on the smartphone of a Mandarin-speaking tourist. “What happened? What happened?” the tourist can be heard shouting on the recording against a background of wailing and honking horns.

More than 20 of the 123 injured people were Chinese, according to a statement posted on the website of China’s embassy in Bangkok. They sustained both “moderate and severe” injuries, Xinhua, China’s official news agency said.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that five of those killed were Chinese citizens, two from Hong Kong and three from mainland China. However, Thai police said only two victims came from mainland China.

The South China Morning Post named the two victims from Hong Kong as 24-year-old Pang Wan-chee and 19-year-old Vivian Chan Wing-yan. Chan suffered “injuries to the heart, liver and abdomen”, a nurse from Bangkok’s Metropolitan administration general hospital was quoted as saying. She died around two hours after being admitted.

A nine-year-old girl “suffered injuries to her head, neck and knee”, the South China Morning Post reported. “Her situation remained unclear.”

A 24-year-old woman from mainland China is also reportedly among the dead.

Taiwanese media said five tourists from that country were injured in the bombing and had been taken to hospital. One Taiwanese women – named only as Ms Wu – was in intensive care while her boyfriend, named as Mr Xu, was missing, according to Taiwan’s state-run Central News Agency.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scenes of chaos in aftermath of Bangkok bombing. Link to video.

Ma Shan, a Chinese tourist visiting Bangkok, said he had been preparing to have dinner when the bomb went off. “All of a sudden, we heard a thud and felt the shock,” he told China Business News.

“At first we thought it was an earthquake. Then we heard a banging noise and people started to scream and run towards us.”

Ma said the attack had left Chinese tourists in Bangkok on edge. “There are rumors that more bombings will happen in other places so many Chinese tourists are scared,” he said.

“I met a few Chinese tourists after the bombing. They all live in hotels not far from the bomb scene and none of them dares return to the hotels. The biggest problem is that we don’t know whether the situation will get worse or better. We don’t know what to do with our the rest of our trip.”



The number of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand has soared in recent years, with six million arriving in the first six months of this year alone, according to the state-run Global Times newspaper. Chinese tourists already represent nearly 20% of international arrivals to Thailand and are expected to contribute around $5.6bn to the country’s economy this year.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A man prays near the Erawan shrine on Tuesday morning. Photograph: Mark Baker/AP

“It is beyond the imagination of Chinese people that a blast could happen at the famous Erawan shrine,” the Global Times, a Communist party-controlled tabloid, said in an editorial. “It has almost the same impact on Chinese tourists as if it happened in China.

“Whatever the exact number of Chinese casualties, we feel that Chinese tourists are facing the highest level of danger,” the newspaper added. “If the blast is defined as an act of terrorism, it will strike a huge blow to its tourism industry above all else. The people who manifested this terror attack in a place like Erawan shrine are obviously aiming at the country’s tourism sector.”

China’s foreign ministry said it had “initiated an emergency response” following the explosion, which Thai police chief Somyot Poompanmoung blamed on a “pipe bomb”.

Beijing said it had “demanded” embassy officials in Bangkok find out what had happened and to “go all-out to help treat the injured people”.

Chinese officials “rushed to the site of the blast, and to hospitals to visit the injured”, Xinhua said. “Volunteers are being organized to provide interpretation services at the hospitals.”

Bangkok’s Erawan Hindu shrine was built in the 1950s and has become a key point of pilgrimage for Thais and foreign tourists – including many Chinese – who leave offerings they hope will bring prosperity. No motive has so far been given for what Thailand’s military chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha on Tuesday labelled his country’s “worst ever attack”.

Somyot Poompanmoung, the police chief, said the bombers appeared to have deliberately targeted foreigners. “Those who have planted this bomb are cruel. They aim to kill because everyone knows that at 7pm the shrine is crowded with Thais and foreigners,” he said.

Chinese media speculated the bombing could be a “revenge” attack linked to Thailand’s controversial recent decision to deport nearly 100 Uighur Muslims to China. Beijing claimed the Uighurs were involved in terrorism, but offered no proof for its claim.

Beijing has faced international criticism for its harsh treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority who come from Xinjiang, a sprawling region of deserts and mountains near China’s border with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kazakhstan.

Sina, a major Chinese web portal, wrote: “There is much speculation at the moment regarding who was behind the bombing. Given that the Thai government has previously repatriated terrorists back to China, some suggest that the bombing could have been a revenge act, trying to make the Thai government to ‘pay the price’ for its pro-China behaviour.

“The location of the bombing is also noteworthy – it is the Erawan shrine, which is most popular among Chinese tourists,” it added.

So far, no evidence has been offered, in either China or Thailand, to support any suggestion of a link between Uighurs and the Bangkok bombing.

Additional reporting by Luna Lin

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