Explosion at Thailand's national broadcasting HQ

[Cao Pi]

Explosion at Thailand's national broadcasting HQ
Posted: 31 August 2010 1556 hrs
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BANGKOK - A device believed to be a grenade exploded outside Thailand's national broadcasting headquarters in Bangkok on Tuesday, a government spokesman said.

The blast, which caused no injuries, occurred in front of the building housing the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand, spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn told reporters.

"Based on circumstantial evidence it's likely to have been caused by an M-79 (grenade)," he said.

The capital has been under emergency rule since April 7 in response to anti-government "Red Shirt" protests, in which 91 people died and about 1,900 were injured in clashes between protesters and the army.

A handful of explosions in recent weeks have unnerved the Thai capital's residents, who are still recovering from the deadly street protests in April and May.

A grenade blast last Thursday -- the second in a month at the King Power duty-free shopping outlet -- injured a security guard and ensured Bangkok will be the last province kept under emergency rule, the Thai prime minister said.

On July 30, a grenade hidden in a plastic rubbish bag injured a Thai man in his 30s who was scavenging for scrap.

A man linked to the Red Shirt demonstrations was arrested over the explosion and police said the suspect, 23-year-old Sorathien Singkanya, admitted that the grenade belonged to him but had denied planting it himself.

That blast came less than a week after a small bomb exploded at a Bangkok bus stop, killing one person and injuring 10.

-AFP/wk