U.S. embassy bomb scare hits Bangkok stock market

BANGKOK, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Word of a suspicious parcel sent to the U.S. embassy in Bangkok, which proved to be only a fist-sized object, hit the Thai stock market on Tuesday.

Police said a bomb squad was sent to the embassy compound next to the former headquarters of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) after staff x-raying mail saw an object resembling a hand grenade.

"It is a brown ball-shaped object, which resembles an M-26 grenade," police Colonel Sarote Promcharoen told Reuters.

The scare helped push Thailand's benchmark SET index down 2.7 percent to 646.37 points in morning trade, analysts said.

UPDATE:

Toy grenade sparks security alert

BANGKOK: Thai police explosives experts were called to the US embassy in Bangkok yesterday to investigate a suspicious package, which turned out to be a toy grenade and a picture of Osama bin Laden sent from the US to an embassy staffer, officials and witnesses said.

"It's all over with. There's nothing to worry about," said a US Marine guard at the heavily-fortified embassy.

The package was delivered at the embassy's rear entrance this morning and was X-rayed by US officials who became suspicious and called Bangkok's Lumpini police station.

Lumpini police then called in the bomb squad, which spent about an hour cordoning off the area and checking the package.

Witnesses said the package, which was mailed from the US state of Virginia to an embassy employee, appeared to contain a toy grenade, a picture of Saudi Arabian terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, a black T-shirt bearing an American eagle logo and a book on military blunders.

Thai police explosives experts deemed the contents of the package harmless, placed them in a bag and took them away.

"This is just a misunderstanding by the embassy staff," said Lumpini police acting superintendent Colonel Sarote Phomcharoen. "The postman delivered the package at the wrong time."

Bangkok Metropolitan police spokesman Colonel Panurat Meepien said an embassy staffer admitted he ordered the toy grenade from Virginia and failed to inform embassy security officials about it. He said the embassy staffer had been reprimanded.

US officials were not available to comment on the incident. The embassy was nearly deserted today because of the American holiday Veteran's Day, but several hundred Thai office workers watched the bomb squad at work from a safe distance.

- DPA

What the H.E.L.L. was an embassy staffer thinking of when he ordered a toy grenade. What was he going to do with it ?

His career is over.

Keep it real!

He can drive cabs I guess...coz State won't want him anymore