Hoax bomb threat forces evacuation of 300 Chiang Mai-Bangkok train passengers

LAMPANG, July 30 -- More than 300 train passengers in Chiang Mai-to-Bangkok train were forced to evacuate from a train at Lampang after a bomb threat by an unidentified caller.

But after investigation, no explosive device was detected.

Police from the provincial police station in the northern province of Lampang and railway police at 9.45am helped evacuate more than 300 startled passengers on a Chiang Mai-to-Bangkok bound train after the Chiang Mai train station informed that an unidentified caller said that there was a bomb placed on the second to last railcar.

After inspecting the train, police found no explosive device but the police were double checking to make sure.

The train which left Chiang Mai at 6.40am has been released from Lampang and was heading to Bangkok.

Police believed the hoax bomb threat may have come from a member of a drug syndicate which smuggles drugs via train to their customers and were recently the target of police crackdowns. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2011-07-30

pretty good trick actually, create a diversion just as the police are closing in. I wonder if we're going to see more of this kind of thing.

Police appear to have acted both quickly and in an appropriate manner. Given recent world events law enforcement needs to act swiftly.

Police appear to have acted both quickly and in an appropriate manner.

Indeed I agree. However....

When I read that they had not detected and explosives I wondered what device they were using these days?

http://youtu.be/zBQEkXkSVd0

However when a bomb is found, Thai bomb disposal know how to deal with it...

http://youtu.be/kRWVAXf0rhs

Police believed the hoax bomb threat may have come from a member of a drug syndicate which smuggles drugs via train to their customers and were recently the target of police crackdowns

Doesnt say anything about creating a diversion - or that the police were actively pursuing the syndicate during the bomb scare...

Just says 'may have been them' or maybe not...

The same thing happened to me on a train trip to Hua Hin last year. What is going on here?

Perhaps the boy will cry wolf enough so that when the real thing comes, no one will care.

Other paper reports the call trace came in from Yala’s Betong district by a man claiming that he had placed a bomb on the train.

The headline actually means that 300 passengers had a laundry problem.

The train was evacuated not the passengers.

Keep taking the iodine. :jap:

The headline actually means that 300 passengers had a laundry problem.

The train was evacuated not the passengers.

Keep taking the iodine. :jap:

What???? Are you for real????

Hoax delays train

By The Nation on Sunday

A hoax bomb threat on the number 102 Chiang Mai-Bangkok train caused railway officials to stop the train at Lampang station yesterday morning and evacuate 300 passengers immediately for safety reasons.

After the train left Chiang Mai at around 7am, Chiang Mai station chief Silrat Devaji said a rail official received a phone call at 9am from a man claiming to be in Betong in the far South who said a bomb was planted in a third-class free riding carriage and it would go off in 40 minutes.

So the train was warned to stop in Lampang and get the passengers off, before the bomb squad searched all bogies for a bomb.

After finding no bomb on the train or in passengers' luggage, they eventually let the train continue its journey to Bangkok.

Silrat also filed a police complaint and it was initially suspected that the hoax threat may have result from a conflict with the southern railway labour union or a drug-trafficking ring getting back at railway police for a heavy crackdown.

-- The Nation 2011-07-31

pretty good trick actually, create a diversion just as the police are closing in. I wonder if we're going to see more of this kind of thing.

Obviously we hope not, but right now, some genius should issue standing orders to stop the train OUTSIDE the next station in these circumstances, or at least on a siding as far from other potential victims as possible.

"Sheesh!", as Yogi Bear used to say.