Police defuse bombs planted in Bangkok's outskirts

BANGKOK, December 16 (TNA) - Thai police found and successfully defused six bombs planted in three locations in the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday morning and arrested a suspected man. Thai National Police Chief Police General Priewpan Damapong confirmed that the bombs were placed in three locations in Bangkok's Lat Krabang District and were apparently the acts of the same gang of about five people who planted another bomb in front of the Government Lottery Office (GLO) on the Rajadamnoen Klang Avenue in the capital on December 6. Deputy Prime Minister Police Captain Chalerm Yubumrung, who oversees national security, the national police chief and other senior metropolitan police officers went to inspect the scenes after the explosives were spotted at about 4am. The first explosive, found near Bangkok Bank’s Sukhumvit 77 Branch on Lat Krabang 20 Road, was stuffed in a plastic pipe, 5 inches wide and 10 inches long, wrapped with black tape and a plastic bag and placed on a garbage pile beside the fence of the bank. Police x-rayed the bomb, cut its wires and learned that it would be detonated with a remote control. Two more homemade bombs, contained in black plastic pipes and set with two alarm clocks to explode at 12.55pm, were placed by the Bangkok-Chon Buri Motorway near Kanchanaphisek 39 Frontage Road. The other three bombs, contained in a dish wash bottle and two plastic pipes, wired with three alarm clocks and placed under a bridge opposite the Suvarnabhumi Market, were planted in the third location on Lat Krabang 13 Road. The authorities said that they believe the six bombs were placed to instigate unrest, and that the suspected bomber, a 44-year-old man from the eastern Rayong Province, acted with 3-accomplices and planned to place bombs on eight locations but could do it only in three places. The untoward incidents took place days after the government ordered heightened vigilance by security officers during people's New Year celebrations nationwide. (TNA)