BANGKOK — Arrest warrants for a Thai woman and a foreign national suspected of involvement in the bomb attacks earlier this month were issued this afternoon following a second raid conducted in the capital’s Min Buri district.

Following the arrest of a foreign man in Bangkok’s eastern suburbs and a second raid elsewhere turned up a large quantity of bomb-making materials, a court this afternoon issued fresh warrants for two more people suspected of involvement in the 17 Aug. Erawan Shrine bombing.

“We would like to ask owners of apartments, dorms or rental houses that have foreign residents whose appearances match these descriptions to immediately contact security officers, because these individuals may have materials that could be dangerous to the buildings and other residents,” Lt. Gen Prawuth Thawornsiri, police spokesman, said this afternoon in a televised address.

One warrant is for 26-year-old Wanna Suansan, a Thai woman said to have rented out a Min Buri room raided Saturday night, where authorities said they found bomb-making materials. The other suspect is an unnamed man whose nationality has not been confirmed.

In a photograph of what authorities said is Wanna’s national ID card, she is shown wearing hijab. The other suspect is an unnamed man whose nationality has not been confirmed, Prawuth said.

Investigators at the Maimuna Garden Home on Rath Uthit Road in Bangkok's Min Buri district on Sunday.

Forty soldiers and police officers converged on a Min Buri apartment building where they believe Wanna was staying. They discovered illegal materials including two bags of fertilizer, gunpowder, bolts, remote-controlled toys, electric bulbs and digital watches, according to Prawuth.

The building is located in a Muslim enclave near a mosque and shops selling hijab and halal food. 

According to Police Col. Susak Parakmakul, a senior officer with the Bangkok Metropolitan Police, previous arrests were made in the same district two years ago of suspected bomb makers. He declined to conclude whether the fertilizer and gunpowder found in Saturday’s raid was related to Erawan Shrine bombing.

“We have to wait for the forensic police to investigate the evidence in details to determine whether these [evidence] are related to the bomb incident at Ratchaprasong intersection,” Susak said yesterday.

Materials investigators said were recovered from the home of a suspect arrested Saturday in the capital's Nong Chok district.

There have been no further arrests since the first apparent break in the case led to the arrest of a foreign man, whose nationality and name have yet to be verified, at an apartment in the Nong Chok district on Saturday. Police said they found a large amount of bomb-making materials and fake Turkish passports. The man is currently being detained at an army base for interrogation.

However both Somyot and police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawuth Thawornsiri said the amount of materials and explosives recovered so far could have been used for possible future attacks.

“It’s possible,” Prawuth said yesterday. “There were around 10 detonators in his room.”

The break in the case came after investigators spent nearly a week searching through phone traffic data near the site of the attack and found “Turkish phone numbers” using international roaming services, according to an unidentified police source in a Bangkok Post report.

Prawuth said yesterday interrogation of the suspect has yielded useful information, although he has not confessed to being involved.

“As for the interrogation of this suspect, I cannot disclose the details yet, but I can assure you that it’s very useful for the case. I also cannot yet confirm the nationality of this suspect. After the military completed interrogation, they will send him to police for legal prosecution,” Somyot said.

In a special order issued by junta chairman and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha in April, soldiers are permitted to detain individuals and search properties without court warrants.

Twenty people were killed and more than 150 injured in the bomb that struck Erawan Shrine on 17 Aug. Another bomb exploded in the water next to Sathorn Pier on 18 Aug., though no one was injured by the blast.

Before today, police had issued two arrest warrants for two suspects: a yellow-shirted man seen in CCTV placing his backpack at Erawan Shrine minutes before the bomb went off, and a blue-shirted man seen in security camera kicking a bag into the canal next to Sathorn Pier.

The man arrested Saturday, identified in a forged Turkish passport as Adem Karadag, was “definitely one of the team” behind the bombings, Prawuth said yesterday.

Somyot today sought to assure the public of its safety.

“Government and security force have expressed concern and are monitoring situation around the country closely, because the confiscated items were large amount of explosives could have been used in other incidents. However, the people can rest assured that security officers can maintain the situation.”

No one has taken credit for the bombing, leading to speculation ranging from Thailand's internal political divide and southern separatist movement, to far-right Turkish fascists angered by Thailand's deportation of Uighur refugees, or even a faction of the Thai military.

Meanwhile, a 3 million-baht bounty for suspects in the Erawan Shrine bombings set by the police force will go to the police investigators who tracked down and arrested the foreign man on Saturday, Somyot said.

Police had promised to pay the bounty to any member of the public who has information leading to arrest of the suspects behind the bombings, but Somyot said they have in fact received no useful tips from the public.

“I will present it to the investigation team because they managed to arrest the suspect at the apartment,” he said.

Outgoing national police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang this morning showed the cash officers will receive for Saturday's arrest.

Related stories:

Police Search for More Suspects After Arrest

Floundering Bomb Investigation Deepens Doubts About Competency

No Longer Whole, a Family Buries its Dead and Waits for Answers

City Officials Bridle at Claims of Broken CCTVs

Bangkok Bombing Dragnet Yields 142 Unrelated Arrests

Bangkok Bomber May Have Fled Thailand: Police

Man Dropped Bag into Water Night Before Sathorn Pier Blast

Seen Often on Sathorn 10, Suspect Thought to Use Fake Turkish Passport

Leaked Police Report Tracks Lead Suspect Before, After Bombing

1M Baht Bounty for Bangkok Bomb Suspect

Bangkok Shrine Bombing: Those Who Died

Despite Lack of Evidence, Thai Media Points Blame at Uighurs

Tourists Narrowly Escape Second Bangkok Bombing in 24 Hours

Bangkok Shrine Bombing: Police Hunt Backpack Man

Tourists Among 19 Killed by Bomb at Bangkok's Erawan Shrine

To reach us about this article or another matter, please contact us by e-mail at: [email protected].

Follow @KhaosodEnglish

BANGKOK — Investigators are hunting for more suspects in the bombing of the Erawan Shrine while a foreign suspect was being questioned by investigators today at a military base.

Authorities said they are looking for suspects who have "been in Thailand for years” and are connected with a man identified in what is likely a fake Turkish passport as 28-year-old Adem Karadag, a suspect charged with possessing explosives after he was taken into custody in the eastern outskirts of the capital yesterday.

“Our intelligence also has information about who they are, how they arrived, and what they did this for. These people belong to a network of lawbreakers,” said outgoing police chief Gen. Somyot Pumpanmuang. “As for details, I’d prefer not to disclose them now, because it may make our work difficult, and it will alert other perpetrators in the same network.”

Numerous irregularities can be seen in this photo taken of the suspect's passport.

Somyot said yesterday’s raid followed a joint investigation by the military and police. They were targeting five rooms inside the Nong Chok district apartment building. Inside one of them, police said they found the suspect along with detonators, ball bearings, explosives and metal pipes similar to materials used in the 17-Aug. bombing.

“We found that there is a connection between him and the bombings at Ratchaprasong and Sathorn pier,” police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawuth Thawornsiri said.

Top police brass were quick to dismiss any link to international terror.

“He is a foreigner, but it’s unlikely that he belongs to any international terrorist group,” Somyot said. “His motive was personal vengeance. He felt vengeful on behalf of his friends. It’s not international terrorism.”

It was the first arrest in the case, coming 12 days after a powerful bomb killed 20 people, mostly foreign tourists, and injured more than 150 others, some of whom remain in critical condition.

Bangkok Shrine Bombing: Those Who Died

Somyot said it was “unlikely” the suspect was motivated over Thailand’s forcible deportation of more than 100 Uighurs back to China, a widely criticized move that resulted in angry Turkish nationalists storming the Thai consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, last month.

“Lets just say he is angry and bitter on behalf of his friends and his family. Please don’t make me go deeper into details,” Somyot said. “But I can say it’s not international terrorism.”

The suspect and alleged accomplices “have been in Thailand for years now,” he added.

Saturday’s arrest was a dramatic turnaround for what had seemed an increasingly moribund investigation.

On Thursday an arrest warrant was issued for an unidentified “Asian” man thought to have dropped a bomb into water from a footbridge near the Sathorn Pier minutes after the blast at the Erawan Shrine. Something exploded there the next afternoon, injuring no one.

Somyot reacted angrily when a reporter asked if the arrested man was a scapegoat.

“How can you ask that? What news agency are you from?” he said. “Your question is not constructive at all. Are you Thai? Get out of here!”

Related stories:

Floundering Bomb Investigation Deepens Doubts About Competency

BANGKOK (DPA) – A foreign suspect was arrested Saturday in connection with a bombing this month at a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people, police said.

"We arrested a 28-year-old foreign national who had in his possession bomb-making materials, including fuses, ball bearings and pipes," police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said.

The materials were similar to the device used in the August 17 bombing, Prawut said, adding that the suspect probably was linked to the attack but might not have been the actual bomber.

The spokesman also showed a picture during a press conference of a dozen passports emblazoned with a crescent and star found in the possession of the suspect. Local media reported that the passports are Turkish in origin.

A police source who declined to be named said police acted on a tip from the landlord who owned the apartment that the suspect was renting.

The landlord grew suspicious because the suspect did not speak Thai and rented five rooms on the same floor of the apartment complex.

Local residents told reporters that the suspect had been living in the apartment for two weeks before the bombing at the Erawan shrine in the heart of Bangkok.

Kasem Pooksuwan, the motorcycle taxi driver who said he drove the suspect away from the bombing, said pictures released of the man arrested looked similar to the bomber. 

"They have the same chin and nose," Kasem said. 

Television footage late Saturday showed the suspect wearing a black hood being taken away from the apartment complex as onlookers watched. 

Police said the suspect will be interrogated.

Anthony Davis – a regional security analyst with Britain's IHS Jane's, which provides intelligence to militaries and governments – said at a forum this week that the Bangkok bombing did not fit the pattern of attack of local and regional groups. 

Davis said the most likely group to have carried out the attack is a far-right Turkish organization known as the Grey Wolves. Davis said that the motive for such an attack could have been the repatriation of Uigher refugees to China by the Thai government.

To reach us about this article or another matter, please contact us by e-mail at: [email protected].