National police chief to announce blast investigation progress on August 8

National police chief to announce blast investigation progress on August 8

By The Nation

Chakthip Chaijinda

National police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda will on Thursday announce progress in investigations into the series of blasts and arsons in Bangkok last week, a leading investigator said.

Pol Lt-General Kraiboon Suadsong, a member of the investigative team, said Chakthip would hold a press conference after he had accompanied Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha to visit Yala on Wednesday, during which he would interview some suspects being detained there.

Kraiboon said Chakthip would not present any suspects during the press conference. Attempts to identify the correct number of suspects remained in custody confused as police sources said four had been arrested, but Prayut on Tuesday said that up to nine suspects were being detained.

Police sources said investigators have obtained sufficient evidence to seek arrest warrants against several additional suspects.

The sources said investigators were confident of obtaining court warrants after they had summoned explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) officers to brief the investigators about evidence found at the scenes of blasts that clearly determined the types of bombs used in the coordinated attacks.

Sources said nine bombs were used in the attacks, with six having exploded and three safely disposed of. Two bombs were planted in front of the Royal Thai Police headquarters and were disposed of on Thursday, before the other bombs went off on Friday. Two bombs were planted in front of the Building B of the Government Complex in Chaeng Wattana, two in front of the Supreme Command, one in front of the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence, one in front of the King Power Mahanakhon Building and another under the pedestrian bridge linked to the Chong Nonsi BTS station.

A team of EOD officers checked a clothing shop in Pratunam area on Wednesday morning after a mysterious power bank was found hidden in a pile of clothes inside the shop late on Tuesday night.

EDO officers will check again later on Wednesday the six locations where fires had broken out early on August 2, prior to the bomb blasts occurring in other places. The six locations are three cloth vending stalls in Pratunam, the Platinum shopping mall, the Siam Paragon shopping mall and the Siam Square One shopping mall.

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30374393