Suspect in the Bangkok blast. —Reuters

BANGKOK: Thai authorities on Saturday detained and charged a 28-year-old Turkish man over a bomb attack in Bangkok last week that killed 20 people and wounded scores more.

It is the first arrest in connection with the August 17 bombing at the Erawan shrine in the capital’s bustling downtown district, which killed mostly Asian visitors, in Thailand’s worst single mass-casualty attack.

Around 100 police and military officers — including at least a dozen bomb disposal specialists — gathered outside an apartment block in Nong Chok district on the eastern outskirts of Bangkok where the man was arrested on Saturday in possession of bomb-making equipment and multiple passports.

“We believe that the suspect was involved with the bombing” at the shrine, national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said on a live televised broadcast on Saturday evening.

He also said that the man was involved with a blast the day after the shrine bombing near a popular tourist pier which sent people scurrying but caused no injuries.

The 28-year-old has been charged with the “illegal possession of bomb-making materials such as ball bearings” and “pipes to use as a bomb container”, Prawut said.

Colonel Banphot Phunphien, spokesman of Thailand’s Internal Security Operations Com­mand (ISOC), said the man was a “Turkish national”.

For days Thai police have been searching for a prime suspect, described as a foreign man, who was captured on security footage wearing a yellow t-shirt and leaving a bag at the shrine moments before the blast on security cameras.

But authorities have not yet linked the suspect now detained in military custody with the man seen on this video footage.

“We found dozens of passports inside his room, we have to check which nationalities they belong to,” he said on the televised broadcast.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2015

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