Bangkok bomb suspect Turkish national, say Thai officials

A man resembling the prime suspect in Thailand’s worst terror attack here that killed 20 people, who was today arrested with dozens of passports and several bomb-making tools and materials, is a Turkish national, security officials said on Saturday.

Colonel Banphot Phunphien, spokesman of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), was quoted by a media report as saying that the arrested man “is a Turkish national”, in the first detention in the attack at Bangkok’s Erawan Brahma temple. “He carries many passports. It’s unusual how he carries so many passports,” Banphot added.

“We have detained one person,” deputy national police chief General Chaktip Chaijinda told reporters but police would not confirm the nationality of the detained person who local media said was Turkish. “We have found components of bomb-making materials in his apartment and I am confident that he is likely involved with the bomb attack,” he said.

National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said in a televised statement that police had also found detonators, metal pipe with lids at the suspect’s apartment during the raid this afternoon.

The 28-year-old man, who was not identified and was arrested from his rented apartment in Nong Chok district in a suburb in eastern Bangkok, was also found in possession of multiple passports.