Thai rescue workers carry an injured person after a bomb exploded outside a religious shrine in central Bangkok late on August 17, 2015.(Photo/CFP)
At least 19 people, including three Chinese citizens, were killed on Monday when a bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded outside a shrine in the Thai capital.
The Chinese embassy in Thailand has confirmed with Thai police that another 15 Chinese citizens were among the injured.
Over 110 people, including more than 10 Chinese, were in Police General Hospital, according to a Global Times journalist based in Thailand.
The explosives were planted and aimed at taking lives, national police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang said.
The injured, including Thais, Chinese nationals and Filipinos, were taken to nearby hospitals, according to the police.
The Chinese embassy in Thailand was trying to confirm the exact number of Chinese citizens killed or injured, while the consulate general was leading a contingency team that went to hospitals to make sure injured Chinese were properly treated.
The embassy sent translators to the hospitals to help with communication.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which occurred just outside the Erawan shrine at a major intersection.
A China Central Television reporter quoted police in Bangkok as saying that TNT was used in the bomb, and that a bomb disposal unit had dismantled two suspected explosive devices.
"The perpetrators intended to destroy the economy and tourism because the incident occurred in the heart of the tourism district," Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said.
The Erawan shrine, on a busy corner in the Thai capital near top hotels, shopping centres, offices and a hospital, is a major attraction, especially for visitors from East Asia, including China. Many ordinary Thais also worship there.
"I had just paid tribute to the Buddha. I was washing my hands, and suddenly I heard a huge explosion, and when I turned, four people were all lying on the ground," Gu Xinlun, a Chinese tourist who arrived in Bangkok on Monday, told China Daily.
He said the blast killed one of his friends.
"It was like a meat market," said Marko Cunningham, a New Zealand paramedic working with a Bangkok ambulance service, who said the blast had left a two-metre-wide (6-foot-) crater.
"There were bodies everywhere. Some were shredded. There were legs where heads were supposed to be. It was horrific," Cunningham said, adding that people several hundred metres away had been injured.
Political tension
At the scene, authorities ordered onlookers back, saying they were checking for a second bomb.
"We are now looking for another two to three bombs, as we have found one suspicious object," national police chief Prawut Thawornsiri told Reuters.
"There could be another explosion, so we have blocked off the crime scene and are asking bystanders to move back."
Authorities stepped up security checks at some major city intersections and in tourist areas.
While initial suspicion might fall on Muslim separatists in the south, Thailand has been riven for a decade by an intense and sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.
Occasional small blasts have been blamed on one side or the other. Two pipe bombs exploded outside a luxury shopping mall in the same area in February, but caused little damage.
Police said that attack was aimed at raising tension when the city was under martial law.
