Fatal Bomb Blast at Bangkok Bus Stop
An explosive device hidden in a garbage container has killed one person and injured at least eight others in central Bangkok. The incident took place at a bus-stop outside the Big C supermarket on Ratchadamri Road in the central shopping area of Bangkok. The Big C supermarket is opposite the Central World shopping mall which was the target of an arson attack at the end of the red shirt anti-government protests in May.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack which took place early Sunday evening shortly before the results of an important by-election were delivered. The election in Bangkok was for a vacant seat in Thailand’s House of Representatives and has been won by a candidate from the government’s Democrat party. It has been a tense and controversial election with the defeated member of the pro-red shirt opposition Puea Thai party unable to campaign personally because he is currently in Bangkok Remand Prison. The Puea Thai candidate, Korkaew Pikulthong, is in prison accused of terrorism for his part in the anti-government protests during April and May. He was detained under the controversial emergency decree which remains in place in Bangkok. The Thai government have said the extraordinary political situation means that the emergency laws need to remain for the time being. However, opponents of the government have accused them of stifling free speech and suppressing democratic rights.
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