Police will contact their Malaysian counterparts over reports the yellow-shirted man suspected of planting the deadly bomb at the Erawan shrine last month has been arrested there, police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri says.
National police chief Somyot Poompunmuang is seeking information from Malaysian police, Pol Lt Gen Prawut said, adding that if the suspect has really been arrested, a police team, led by Pol Lt Gen Suchart Teerasawat, an inspector-general, will be sent to the country to join the investigation or gather information about him.
Verification of the information could take one or two days, the spokesman said.
The blast at the shrine killed 20 and wounded 130 on Aug 17. Another explosion took place at Sathon pier the following day. A man in a blue shirt was seen on CCTV camera nudging a package believed to contain a bomb into the water the day before the blast with his foot.
According to a police source, Malaysian Special Branch police raided a string of apartments and rented rooms in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday night on the lookout for the yellow-shirted and blue-shirted men believed to be holed up in the country.
Malaysian police earlier apprehended two Malaysians and one Pakistani accused of being linked to a network smuggling people into Malaysia.
The suspects told Malaysian police they helped the two suspected bombers escape to Malaysia, the source said.
A Thai-based people-smuggling network saw off the two suspects at the Thai border fence, about 2km from Muno police station in Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok district, where they then boarded a boat across the Kolok River to Malaysia, the source added.
The suspects then got off the boat on the Malaysian side where they met two other Malaysians who had been waiting for them.
Another Malaysian man then took the suspects to Kuala Lumpur.
The source said Malaysian Special Branch police apprehended three suspects during Saturday's raids. One of them resembles the yellow-shirted suspect and his interrogation is under way.
Malaysian police had shared the photos of the suspect with Thai investigators and they will be shown to another bombing suspect, Yusufu Mieraili, to determine whether the man is the yellow-shirted suspect.
Mr Mieraili, 25, was apprehended, according to the Thai military, in Sa Kaeo on Sept 1, and is now in custody at the 11th Military Circle. He allegedly admitted to delivering a bomb-laden rucksack to the yellow-shirted suspect.
If Mr Mieraili confirms the man in the photos is the yellow-shirted suspect, his extradition will be sought, the source said, adding identity verification should take about a week.
Pol Lt Gen Chaiwat Ketworachai, chief of the Special Branch police, said Malaysian authorities have carried out extensive searches to locate the Bangkok bomb cell suspects as that country also faces people smuggling problems.
Speaking about cooperation between the Foreign Ministry and Chinese authorities to verify information in the Chinese passports held by Mr Mieraili and another key suspect, Abudureheman Abudusataer, or Ishan, Pol Lt Gen Prawut said the results should be known this week.
Mr Mieraili allegedly told investigators Mr Ishan had arranged meetings of bomb cell members and assigned them tasks. The spokesman said police cannot confirm the real name of the blue-shirted suspect as only his nickname was given by people in the bombing network.
