Thailand: Seven Allah Bombs Kill Four & Wound Many

Nine foreigners were among the 21 people injured in the Hua Hin blasts were foreign nationals, according to local officials. Dutch, Austrian, German and Italian nationals are believed to have been affected.

A statement from the German foreign ministry confirmed that at least three German nationals had been injured in the blast in Hua Hin  and that the embassy was offering them assistance.

The British embassy in Thailand has updated travel advice urging tourists to exercise ‘extreme caution’ and avoid public places.

Australians have been warned to exercise a ‘heightened caution’ in the country and follow the advice of local authorities.

Tourist Shane Brett described the scenes of panic after the first devices were detonated in Hua Hin.

He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: ‘I was at a bar in the main bar district in Hua Hin right outside the Hilton Hotel and at first I heard kind of a bang and everyone kind of panicked.’

Mr Brett said revellers fled to safety, adding there were ‘a good few people injured and the whole area just panicking … the whole area was just shut down with police cars, ambulances’.

While Henrik Buuz, 62, of Denmark sipped beer in a Hua Hin hotel lobby Friday.

He said that while he might not have taken security seriously in the past, he no longer felt safe in the sunny beach town where streets were remarkably quiet for the beginning of a three-day holiday.

‘No, no, no, no. Now we don’t think it’s funny anymore,’ said Buuz.

In Surat Thani, provincial governor Wongsiri Promchana said the bomb, hidden in a flower bed, exploded in front of the marine police offices, killing a municipal worker and injuring another man.

‘I think it’s related to the blasts in Hua Hin,’ Wongsiri told AFP, referring to the overnight attack in the town that lies further north.

According to local media one person died in an attack on the Centre Point shopping mall in Trang while six more were injured.

General Sithichai Srisopacharoenrath said the devices were hidden inside plants on a street filled with restaurants, bars and food sellers that is popular with tourists and residents.

He said a Samsung mobile phone had been recovered that they believed was used to detonate at least one the bombs.

On Friday, debris and ball bearings could be seen strewn across the road as police investigated the scene. The blast damaged a pair of phone booths and shattered the window of a nearby Starbucks.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Army General Danai Kritmethavee said authorities believed the attacks were coordinated and that they are investigating ‘all possible leads’.

While national deputy police spokesman Piyapan Pingmuang told reporters: ‘This is not a terrorist attack. It is just local sabotage that is restricted to limited areas and provinces’.

Analysts said Muslim insurgent groups in the south could be behind the attack, but warned that coordinated bombings targeting tourists would mark an unprecedented escalation in a simmering conflict largely contained in the border region.

Some reports suggest that the timing of the strikes, which took place on the 84th birthday of Thailand’s Queen Sirikit, gives weight to the theory they were carried out by those opposed to the junta.

The junta has repeatedly said that defending the monarchy is a top priority and the army and its allies are keen to ensure a smooth succession for ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, who has a palace in Hua Hin.

Thais voted less than a week ago in a referendum to adopt a military-backed constitution, the first test of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha at the ballot box since he seized power in a coup in May 2014.

The three provinces near the border with Muslim-majority Malaysia soundly rejected the referendum on the new military-backed constitution which passed convincingly in most of the rest of the country in Sunday’s vote.

It is thought more than 6,500 people, including Buddhist monks, teachers, troops and separatist insurgents have been killed since 2004 in the long-running conflict, although tourist destinations have rarely been affected.

The latest bombings came almost a year after an attack by two ethnic Uighur Muslims from China on a Hindu shrine thronged with tourists in central Bangkok killed 20 people and wounded more than 120.

Police also ruled out the possibility international militants may have been responsible for that attack, and said the perpetrators were members of a network that trafficked Uighurs and launched the attack in anger at a crackdown.

Analysts, diplomats and even some officials suspected the attack was linked to sympathisers of China’s Uighur minority angered by the Thai junta’s deportation of more than 100 Uighurs to China the previous month.

King Bhumibol and the queen are both in hospital in Bangkok and have not stayed recently at their palace in Hua Hin. Check points have been established and security beefed up around Hua Hin and the palace there.

The king has received treatment for an infection over the past month in hospital, the Royal Household Bureau said on August 1. Concern about the health of the king and nervousness over the succession have played into the country’s political tensions.

The resort of Hua Hin is popular with both foreigners and locals, and hosts international jazz, car and kite festivals every year.

It is also famous for its fishing opportunities while its shallow and warm waters provide good conditions for kite boarding and surfing.

Small bombings are common in the kingdom during periods of heightened political tension but there have been few such incidents in the past year and it is rare for tourists to be targeted.

Phuket in particular is frequented by millions of European, Chinese and Thai tourists each year who come to swim in the warm, azure sea, party at the open air night clubs and explore tropical rainforests. The other towns hit are less prominent international destinations but still popular among Thais and many foreigners.

Tourism suffered a temporary hit after a bomb blast ripped through a Bangkok shrine nearly a year ago, killing 20 people, mostly visitors from other Asian countries.

‘This ruins business. Hotels, restaurants, tours, we were already suffering, but this, it’s going to ruin our lives,’ said Hua Hin Adventure Tours guide Natsupa Dechapanya.

Natsupa raced Thursday from hotel to hotel visiting clients and warning them not to go outside, especially where people gather. She was also fielding cancellation calls, although she was staying away from her office, opposite a clock tower where Friday’s bombs went off.

‘I’m scared, it’s bad,’ she said. ‘This is the first time this has happened in Hua Hin. We think of this as a safe town, but now everyone is fearful. We feel like we’re not safe.’

She said because the explosions happened hours apart, many – including herself – are worried about whether the attacks are over. And she said without any arrests, tension on city streets is palpable.

‘Usually this is a friendly town, but today no one wants to look up. People don’t want to look each other in the eyes,’ she said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3735585/Explosion-rocks-Thai-tourist-town-Surat-Thani-leaving-one-dead-three-injured-woman-killed-pot-plant-bombs-Hua-Hin.html#ixzz4H7UF8Hr8
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Bomb blast in Thailand. UPDATE: Wave of bombings

Andrew Bolt