This Article is From Jul 26, 2010

One dead, 10 wounded in Bangkok bomb blast

One dead, 10 wounded in Bangkok bomb blast

AP Photo

Bangkok: A bomb exploded at a bus stop in central Bangkok on Sunday, killing one person and wounding 10 in an attack that reignited tensions two months after the end of deadly opposition protests.

The explosion came hours after polls closed in a closely watched by-election in the capital, with initial results suggesting a leader of the "Red Shirt" anti-government movement had lost to a member of the elite-backed ruling party.

The bomb went off in the early evening at a bus stop in front of a supermarket in the same central shopping district occupied by the Red Shirts during their two-month-long mass rally, which ended with an army crackdown in May.

"It was an attempt to injure innocent people," said government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn.

"The authorities will have to increase preventative measures," he added, without elaborating.

The victim was a 51-year-old man who died in hospital, an official at the Erawan emergency centre told AFP.

The scene of the attack was sealed off by police and forensic experts were seen collecting wires and small batteries at the site.

The blast appeared to have been caused by a small time bomb "designed to create fear," a soldier at the scene told AFP.

The explosion shattered an uneasy calm that had returned to the capital since the military crushed the Red Shirts' two-month-long mass protests with an assault on their sprawling encampment in the heart of the capital.

Thai society remains deeply divided following the political violence, in which 90 people died and about 1,900 were injured in a series of street clashes between armed troops and demonstrators.

After the crackdown, enraged demonstrators torched major buildings around the capital, including a major shopping mall near the scene of Sunday's blast.
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