Koh Samui car bomb: seven people hurt on Thai tourist island
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Version 0 of 1. A car bomb wounded seven people, including an Italian girl, when it exploded in the parking area of a shopping mall on the Thai tourist island of Koh Samui, police said. The bomb was packed inside a Mazda pick-up truck and exploded late on Friday in the car park of the Central Festival mall on the island while late-night shoppers were inside the building. Police said the car had been stolen from Yala, one of Thailand’s three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces where a 10-year insurgency has killed more than 6,300 people. “It’s a car bomb but we cannot confirm what type of explosive materials they used,” said Lieutenant-General Prawut Thavornsiri, spokesman for the Thai national police. “The car used was Mazda pick-up truck stolen from Yala,” he added, without specifying whether the blast was believed to be linked to the conflict hundreds of miles away. Poonsak Sophonsasmorong of the island’s disaster prevention office said: “Six Thais and a 12-year-old Italian girl were treated for minor injuries,” adding that they had all been released from hospital. Thai police are often accused of leaping to conclusions in the immediate aftermath of high-profile incidents. The Thai force came under fire for bungling the initial investigation and leaking erroneous information to the media during the probe into the murder of two British backpackers on Koh Tao island last year. A second policeman at the scene also said Friday’s blast was caused by a car bomb. Bomb squad experts scoured the debris early Saturday in the underground car park for clues about who might be behind the attack, which comes as Thailand’s junta tries to reassure tourists about the kingdom’s safety as a holiday destination following a coup last May. Samui is a popular tourist island in the Gulf of Thailand. The roughly 20 million visitors flock to the country each year are vital to the economy. Although the military lifted martial law last week, it maintained sweeping security powers citing the threat of political unrest. Thailand’s southern province bordering Malaysia, 250 miles (400km) south of Samui, are home to a simmering insurgency pitting Muslim rebels against security forces. |