Authorities have released CCTV images of two men suspected of bombing at least at one place in Surat Thani during the attacks that shook seven southern provinces earlier this month.
Police in the southern province put the pictures out to the public after successfully recovering them from a hard disk that had been damaged by a blast at the Taweesin Plastic retail shop. Two security cameras had recorded two men inside the shop in Muang district before the bomb went off around 5am on Aug 12.
One of them is about 165cm tall and the other man is 170cm tall. Both were wearing hats and health masks at the time so their faces are almost completely obscured.
Police are trying to find out whether they were the same peeople who placed two more bombs in front of the Muang District police station and the Marine Police station three hours later, although they suspected two more people in connection with the fatal attacks in the province.
Pol Maj Gen Apichart Boonsrirote, the Surat Thani police chief, said on Saturday that two teams of investigators were checking the routes taken by the suspects.
The face of a second man suspected in the Surat Thani bombing is completely obscured in these images released by authorities.
An initial investigation indicated that four suspects had travelled to Surat Thani from Hat Yai by an interprovincial public van on Aug 10. They all returned that night after placing the bombs with timers for explosions to be detonated later by mobile phones, he said.
One person was killed and three injured in the blasts in Surat Thani. The bomb at Taweesin caused damage of around 30 million baht.
Authorities have yet to capture a single suspect since the series of blasts and arson attacks in Hua Hin and six other southern provinces on Aug 11 and 12.
One man was arrested in Nakhon Si Thammarat on Aug 13 but he was released on Thursday with no charges. He immediately left for his native provice of Chiang Mai.
The investigation into the incidents that killed four people and injured 37 has been chaotic and confusing so far, with military, police and government officials making contradictory statements daily about who is being sought, where and for what.
On Friday the military handed over to police 15 people who had been reported earlier as possible suspects, only to admit that they had been rounded up in connection with a completely unrelated anti-government activity.
