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Christophe Archambault / AFP / Getty Images
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday that investigators are getting closer to determining who set off the bomb that killed at least 20 people at the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok.
"I have seen the footage, we have some suspects but it is not so clear. We have to find them first," Prayuth said, promising to "hurry and find the bombers."
The nation's defense minister, Prawit Wongsuwan, said the investigation would soon yield results.
"It is much clearer who the bombers are, but I can't reveal right now," Prawit said. "We have suspects. There are not many people."
No one has claimed responsibility for the bomb that blew up around 7 p.m. on Monday at a busy intersection surrounded by shopping malls and hotels.
Somyot Poompanmoung, the national chief of police, was among those surveying the damage Tuesday morning at the Rachaprasong intersection which was reopened to traffic some 17 hours after the blast. He said authorities were not ruling out any potential group as the possible perpetrators of the attack.
Somyot said Tuesday that authorities were looking for a suspect seen on closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage near the shrine.
The suspect was wearing a yellow shirt and could be Thai or a foreigner, he said.
"That man was carrying a backpack and walked past the scene at the time of the incident. But we need to look at the before and after CCTV footage to see if there is a link," Somyot told a news conference.
"Police are not ruling out anything including [Thai] politics and the conflict of ethnic Uighurs who, before this, Thailand sent back to China," Somyot had told reporters earlier.
Thailand forcibly returned 109 Uighurs to China last month. Many of the largely Muslim minority have fled unrest in China's western Xinjiang region, traveling through Southeast Asia to Turkey.
Bangkok will set up a "war room" to coordinate the response to the blast, the Nation television channel quoted Prayuth as saying.
Prawit said the bombers intended to discredit the government and harm the economy.
"We didn't expect this to happen in a crowded area," he says. "They aim to destroy tourism, economy, our country. But during crisis, we can build unity."
"The perpetrators intended to destroy the economy and tourism, because the incident occurred in the heart of the tourism district," Prawit said late Monday.
The Erawan Shrine, dedicated to the Hindu god Brahma, is popular among Thailand's Buddhists as well as Chinese tourists. Three Chinese citizens were among the dead, the official Xinhua news agency said. Two Hong Kong residents, two people from Malaysia and one person from the Philippines were also killed in the blast, officials said. Many of the wounded were from China and Taiwan.
“This probably the worst bomb in the history of Bangkok,” Pravit Rojanaphruk, a political analyst and regular columnist for Thailand's Nation newspaper, told Al Jazeera. “Bangkok itself has no history of a major-scale bomb with mass casualties.”
At least 20 people have been confirmed dead and 117 injured, Thailand's Narinthorn emergency medical rescue center reported on Tuesday.
The power of the blast blew the iron gates outside the shrine outward, and Thai officials said that high-grade explosives were used. Shrapnel from the explosion could be seen as far as 100 yards from the scene, which authorities cordoned off initially to make way for emergency vehicles. Somyot said the blast was caused by a pipe bomb.
Thai forces are fighting a low-level Muslim insurgency in the predominantly Buddhist country's south, but those rebels have rarely launched attacks outside their heartland.
"This does not match with incidents in southern Thailand. The type of bomb used is also not in keeping with the south," Royal Thai Army chief and deputy defense minister General Udomdej Sitabutr said in a televised interview.
"Collection of evidence last night was not complete," Udomdej said.
Tourism is one of the few bright spots in an economy that continues to underperform more than a year after the military seized power in May 2014.
It accounts for about 10 percent of the economy, and the government had expected a record number of visitors this year following a sharp fall in 2014 during months of street protests and the coup.
The country has also been divided for a decade by intense and sometimes violent rivalry between political factions in Bangkok and elsewhere. The country remains tense and deeply divided after nearly a decade of endless protests punctuated by two coups.
Self-exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sits at the heart of the political divide. His parties have won every election since 2001, but he is disliked by the Bangkok-based elite.
On Monday evening, burnt out motorcycles, pools of blood on the street and rubbled from the shrine's walls marked the scene.
"There were bodies everywhere," said Marko Cunningham, a New Zealand paramedic working with a Bangkok ambulance service, who said the blast had left a 6-foot crater.
"Some were shredded. There were legs where heads were supposed to be. It was horrific," Cunningham said, adding that people several hundred yards away had been wounded.
Authorities stepped up security checks at some major city intersections and in tourist areas.
Thailand has also been divided for a decade by a sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.
Occasional small blasts have been blamed on one side or the other. Two pipe bombs exploded outside a luxury shopping mall in the same area in February, but caused little damage.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department said it was too soon to tell if the blast was a terrorist attack. Spokesman John Kirby said authorities in Thailand had not requested U.S. help.
Al Jazeera and wire services. Veronica Pedrosa contributed to this report from Bangkok.
"Some were shredded. There were legs where heads were supposed to be. It was horrific," Cunningham said, adding that people several hundred yards away had been wounded.
Authorities stepped up security checks at some major city intersections and in tourist areas.
Thailand has also been divided for a decade by a sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.
Occasional small blasts have been blamed on one side or the other. Two pipe bombs exploded outside a luxury shopping mall in the same area in February, but caused little damage.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department said it was too soon to tell if the blast was a terrorist attack. Spokesman John Kirby said authorities in Thailand had not requested U.S. help.
Al Jazeera and wire services. Veronica Pedrosa contributed to this report from Bangkok.
"Some were shredded. There were legs where heads were supposed to be. It was horrific," Cunningham said, adding that people several hundred yards away had been wounded.
Authorities stepped up security checks at some major city intersections and in tourist areas.
Thailand has also been divided for a decade by a sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.
Occasional small blasts have been blamed on one side or the other. Two pipe bombs exploded outside a luxury shopping mall in the same area in February, but caused little damage.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department said it was too soon to tell if the blast was a terrorist attack. Spokesman John Kirby said authorities in Thailand had not requested U.S. help.
Al Jazeera and wire services. Veronica Pedrosa contributed to this report from Bangkok.
Explosion occurred near Erawan Shrine, a Hindu temple in popular tourist area; no group has claimed responsibility
Small explosion in Thai capital follows shooting that left a child dead and dozens wounded
Unreported battle over royal succession in the kingdom is a driving force behind the crisis
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