21 injured in Bangkok hospital bomb blast on coup anniversary

BANGKOK — A bomb blast at a hospital in the Thai capital wounded 21 people on Monday (May 22), the third anniversary of the 2014 military coup, with the army chief blaming groups opposed to the junta.

A senior Thai official told TODAY the pipe bomb at the Phramongkutklao Hospital, which is popular with soldiers, retired military officers as well as civilians, was designed to kill.

“The perpetrators are sophisticated. The bomb was designed to harm and kill,” said Dr Panitan Wattanayagorn, an adviser to Deputy Prime Minister in charge of security Prawit Wongsuwan.

“It was a pipe bomb in a flower vase and it was placed outside patients’ rooms named after three Thai generals,” he added in a telephone interview.  “It could have been worse if it was a bigger bomb.” One of the rooms was named after Mr Prawit.

The blast heightened security fears in Bangkok that has been hit by at least six explosions since the 2014 coup. Last Monday, a bomb went off in front of the country’s National Theater. Last month, a similar explosion took place in front of an old government lottery office.

The blast radius from Monday's explosion was 2m to 3m, police said. Investigators had found remnants of batteries and wires at the scene of the blast on the ground floor of the hospital, said Mr Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, the deputy national police chief.

Hospital director Saroj Keokajee said of the 21 injured, 13 were discharged soon after the explosion. One was severely wounded. “Eight people were admitted to hospital to observe their condition ... among them is one woman who needed surgery because of shrapnel buried in her jaw,” he said. 

No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion. Suspicion is likely to focus either on political dissidents opposed to military rule or Muslim separatists based in the south of the predominately Buddhist country.

Army chief General Chalermchai Sittisart said it appeared Monday's explosion and the two earlier blasts used similar explosive materials and were likely part of an attempt to disrupt the government.

“All of this was conducted with the goal of creating disorder to the administrative work of the government and NCPO,” he said, referring to the National Council for Peace and Order, the official name of the ruling junta. 

“It doesn’t have to be the junta anniversary. People who don’t like the junta, given the chance, will do this,” he added, and said troops in uniform and plainclothes security officers would be deployed to increase security.

Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was ejected in the 2014 coup, called for a swift return to democracy in a Facebook post on Monday, adding that the economy had been hit hard.

Dr Panitan tried to downplay speculations that the latest incident was politically motivated, saying Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha will provide an update to the media on Tuesday.

“We’re not ruling out any possibilities.  But it’s certainly very unusual to attack a hospital. This defies domestic and international norms,” he said. 

He added that investigators will look at how the bomb made it past stepped up security checks at the hospital. “In a hospital, the security can only be this tight because the patients and their families will not want too many checks,” he said.  

Dr Paul Chambers, a Thai military expert based in Phitsanulok province in central Thailand, told TODAY the recent bombings in Bangkok point to greater security risks in the capital.

“The hospital bombing is clearly designed to demonstrate resistance to the junta on its third anniversary in power. The real question is resistance by whom? The suspects all have security backgrounds,” he said, adding that the perpetrators were likely to be either factions of the military or police, either of which are  frustrated with the current Queen’s Guard faction-led junta control over Thailand. 

“Thus, the bombings likely reflect a growing lack of unity within Thailand’s security forces, reminiscent of military instability in Thailand during the 1980s.” AGENCIES with additional reporting by JASON TAN