Sketch of Sathon pier bomb suspect released

Sketch of Sathon pier bomb suspect released

The sketch of the Sathon pier bombing suspect released by the Royal Thai Police on Saturday.
The sketch of the Sathon pier bombing suspect released by the Royal Thai Police on Saturday.

Police on Saturday released a sketch of the blue-shirted suspect in the Sathon pier bombing attempt last month in Bangkok.

The Identikit image was based on information provided by three witnesses including two Thai nationals and a Pakistani man, said Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri, the Royal Thai Police spokesman.

He said the suspect, whose name and nationality were not known, was linked with the deadly Erawan shrine explosion.  

Last month, an arrest warrant was issued based on CCTV footage that showed a blue-shirted foreign man dropping a plastic bag with a suspected explosive device inside in the canal near the Sathon pier on Aug 17.

Time stamps on the CCTV footage show the incident occurred only 26 minutes after the Erawan bomb was detonated, killing 20 people and injured more than 100.

The next day at 1pm, there was an explosion in the water beside the pier where the bag had been dropped, but no one was injured.

The investigation into last month's events now involves suspects of multiple nationalities, with leads being pursued in countries from Turkey to Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan and China. Police say the attacks were meant as retaliation by human traffickers against hai authorities for shutting down their lucrative trade.

However, investigators are no closer to capturing the yellow-shirted man who planted the bomb at the Erawan shrine.

Police believe he has left the country and on Friday they vented their frustrations at the media for reporting on the investigation in too much detail.

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