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Thailand Arrests Foreign Suspect Over Bombing

Thailand Arrests Foreign Suspect Over Bombing

Thai police have arrested a foreign man over the blast that hit the capital Bangkok last month, the prime minister has said.

The suspect is the second foreigner to be held over the bombing of the Erawan shrine after Adem Karadag was detained at an apartment in Bangkok on Saturday.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the latest man to be held was captured in Sa Kaeo province, which is east of Bangkok on the border with Cambodia.

He said he is the main suspect wanted over the 17 August attack that left 20 people dead, but did not say whether he is suspected of actually planting the bomb.

Mr Prayuth said: "We have arrested one more, he is not a Thai."

In a later press confernce, Thailand's national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri showed pictures of three more foreign suspects police are hunting.

One of the suspects was unnamed, but the other two were identified as Ahmet Bozaglan and Ali Jolan.

It follows the release on Monday of picture of a male suspect named only as Jusuf and a 26-year-old Thai woman identified as Wanna Suansun.

A spokesman said she had been in touch and had promised to hand herself in for questioning.

Her family told officers on Monday she gone to Turkey about two or three months ago to work with her partner and child.

Meanwhile, 22 officers have been transferred from their posts for negligence, including several immigration officers on the border with Cambodia.

Police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang said he moved the immigration officers because foreigners had been able to enter Thailand illegally in Sa Kaeo.

Karadeg, the suspect held on Saturday, has been held on initial charges of possessing illegal explosives.

He has been in Thailand since January 2014 but police have been unable to confirm his nationality.

Officers said they found a fake Turkish passport, many other passports and suspected bomb-making materials, including explosives and a detonator in the apartment.

A police spokesman said the bomb materials were "the same, similar or the same type" as the ones used in two bombs - the one at the Erawan Hindu shrine and another at the Chao Phraya river a day later, which caused little damage.

Police have been looking into a possible Turkish connection.

Speculation has centred on sympathisers of Uighur Muslims, most of whom live in the northwest Chinese province of Xinjiang.

Some Turks and Uighurs say they share an ethnic background and have cultural links.

Thailand drew international outrage in July when it deported more than 100 Uighurs to China - at a time when relations between China and Turkey have been strained.

Many of those killed in the Erawan bombing were tourists, including people from China or Hong Kong.

Among those who died was Vivian Chan, 19, a British law student who was a Hong Kong resident. At least 117 people were wounded, some of whom lost limbs.

Police investigating the blast gave themselves a reward of three million baht (£54,000) on Monday.