Police release sketch of Thailand's largest bank bombing suspect

BANGKOK, Feb 28 (TNA) – Thai police have released an artist's sketch of a man suspected of throwing a hand grenade at the Bangkok Bank’s Silom Road branch as they believe the incident might be linked to another three bombings at the bank's other branches.

Metropolitan Police Bureau chief Pol Lt-Gen Santan Chayanont said the sketch drawn from witness' accounts which matched the image recorded by the bank's surveillance cameras was useful for solving the bombing cases at four branches of the Bangkok Bank in Bangkok and the neighbouring province of Samut Prakan.

He said the police knew the group that the suspect belonged to and believed that the incidents were politically motivated and were the work of the same group.

Metropolitan Police spokesman Pol Maj-Gen Piya Uthayo released the sketch of the suspect to the media, showing the suspect in his 30s with a large nose and high cheekbones with short hair.

Witnesses said he was a passenger on a motorcycle and threw the grenade at the bank office in Silom.

Gen. Santan ordered security stepped up in the capital on Sunday night when numbers of Buddhist faithful will go to temples across the city to perform Buddhist religious ceremonies on Makha Bucha Day.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who oversees national security, also ordered police to set up additional checkpoints, to patrol the capital by motorcycle and on foot, as well as to work on intelligence.

He instructed the police to cooperate with the armed forces if they need reinforcement. (TNA)