Seven Hurt as Car Bomb Hits Thai Tourist Island of Samui
19 October 2018 15:22 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A car bomb on the Thai resort island of Samui has wounded seven people, including an Italian girl, police said on Saturday, April 11, in a further blow to the country's tarnished reputation as a top tourist destination.
The bomb, packed inside a Mazda pick-up truck with false number plates, was detonated remotely by mobile phone late on Friday in the underground car park of the Central Festival mall, sending late-night shoppers running for safety.
Police said the car had been stolen on March 31 from Yala, one of Thailand's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces that have been scorched by a 10-year insurgency in which more than 6,300 people have been killed.
"It's a car bomb but we cannot confirm what type of explosive materials they used," Thai national police spokesman Lieutenant General Prawut Thavornsiri told AFP. "The car used was a Mazda pick-up truck stolen from Yala," he added, without specifying whether the blast was believed to be linked to the conflict hundreds of kilometres (miles) away.
Six Thais and a 12-year-old Italian girl were treated for minor injuries and were all released from hospital, according to Poonsak Sophonsasmorong of the island's disaster prevention office.
CHANNEL NEWS ASIA | YON DEMA
