Authorities in Thailand are searching for a network of suspects after a coordinated series of bomb attacks targeting beach towns and resorts left four people dead and 34 injured, in some of the country’s worst violence in years.
Ten foreign tourists were among the injured, and foreign embassies have warned visitors to Thailand to be vigilant.
Most of the casualties were in Hua Hin, where bombs hidden in plant pots in the resort town’s main nightlife district were remotely detonated on Thursday evening. Two more devices exploded by a clock tower on Friday morning.
“I heard a very loud bang and I thought an electric transformer exploded,” said Pimpetch Manprasong, who was picking up her boyfriend when the first Hua Hin bomb went off. “Within seconds, there were many foreigners running around. They almost hit my car. I had to avoid them.
“Police were chasing people out of the area. Some people were yelling ‘It’s a bomb … run, run … bomb … run quick!’ When I stopped my car, I saw people lying on the ground.”
A member of a local rescue team described the situation as chaotic and confusing. “The second explosion occurred around 30 minutes after the first one,” Passakorn Phuekthong said. “People were crying and scared.”
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, which occurred over a 24-hour period, but authorities said they had detained several people. In a statement the foreign ministry said it was treating the attacks as “an act of stirring up public disturbance” rather than terror. It did not provide further details.
The south-east Asian nation has long suffered an ongoing low-level insurgency in the deep south. But strikes on tourist hotspots further north will affect the country’s vital tourism industry – and with it, the credibility of Thailand’s military rulers, who overthrew the previous administration in a coup two years ago.
“The royal Thai government expresses its profound regrets for the incidents,” the foreign ministry said in its statement.
Junta chief and prime minister, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, won a country-wide referendum last week that extends military power even if a democratic government is reinstalled. He said the bombs constituted an attempt to create chaos and confusion.
“Why have the bombs occurred as our country is heading towards stability, a better economy and tourism – and who did it? You have to find out,” he said.
The country has seen political violence since the military ousted Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006. Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck, was also deposed in 2014 after months of bloody protests.
The attacks come five days before the first anniversary of a bombing at a Hindu shrine in Bangkok that killed 22 people and wounded more than 100 others. Responsibility for that attack was never claimed.
Officials said three Germans, three Italians, three Dutch and an Austrian tourist were wounded in the blasts on Thursday and Friday.
The first explosion occurred near a market in Trang province, killing one person and wounding six. It was followed by the two bombs in Hua Hin, which killed a late-night food stall worker. Another person died in the clock tower blasts on Friday morning.
On Phuket’s Patong beach, the epicentre of tourism in the area, another small device exploded, wounding one, and two bombs also went off in the province of Surat Thani, leaving one person dead. Two more exploded near a market in Phang Nga, a southern province.
Friday was a national holiday in Thailand, celebrating the birthday of the queen, Sirikit, and some of the bombs were reported to have gone off after the national anthem was played on loudspeakers. Many hotels in Hua Hin, where Sirikit and her husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, keep a palace, were fully booked.
European retirees who have bought small apartments walk up and down the miles of sand. Beachgoers from Bangkok arrive on weekends and western backpackers use the town as a party stop before heading further south to the islands.
On Friday, police set up checkpoints and the main shopping centre was closed for the day. Authorities told tourists and residents to avoid the centre of town, which was close to empty apart from a few journalists, police and locals.
Thailand’s explosive ordinance disposal teams combed the town looking for unexploded bombs. The teams destroyed one bomb near the railway station, which still functions but is also one of the town’s main attractions.
“It is chaotic as there were reports of suspicious objects in various locations,” Hua Hin’s chief police office, Suttipong Klay-Udom, said. “Everybody is scared of danger.”
One hotel manager said he had stopped taking reservations as he expected guests to extend their stay over the weekend for fear of leaving the building. Staff at another hotel were being joined by guards to tighten security around the premises and check the entrances and exits.
“Outsiders aren’t allowed to come in. We just have to keep the guests in the hotel and not let them go outside,” an employee said.
Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy prime minister, said the blasts were “absolutely conducted by the same network”, but added that authorities did not who was responsible, and why they attacked.
Additional reporting by Phakarat Ryn Jirenuwat
