Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Grenade, small bomb attacks in Thai capital

BANGKOK : A bank and the home of the Thai election commission chief were targeted with a grenade and small bombs in the latest violence in the protest-hit capital, police said Monday.

Nobody was hurt in the attacks, which were carried out by unknown assailants late on Sunday, said Major General Prawut Thavornsiri, a spokesman for the Bangkok police task force. The M-79 grenade did not explode when it was fired at a Bangkok Bank branch, while no one was home when three bombs were thrown at the house of the Election Commission chairman Apichart Sukkhakanont, he told AFP.

"The bombs hit a nearby house and exploded. One damaged the house's fence, but injured nobody," he said. Local media said they were made from fireworks.

Thailand is reeling from the worst political violence in almost two decades in its capital, where 29 people have died and almost 1,000 have been injured in a series of confrontations and explosions.

Dozens of small bomb and grenade attacks have been carried out by unknown perpetrators in Bangkok since anti-government "Red Shirt" protesters began street protests in mid-March.

- AFP/il

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