Bangkok:
Three explosions rocked a busy neighbourhood in the Thai capital on Tuesday. A man thought to be an Iranian was seriously wounded when a bomb he was carrying exploded and blew both his legs off, reports said.
"There were three explosions, but no dead," Police Major General Wichai Sungprapai was quoted by AFP as saying. Reports said five people are injured.
A picture posted on Twitter purportedly showed a wounded man lying on a sidewalk strewn with broken glass outside a Thai school, his legs apparently ripped off in an explosion. He is in hospital. Several Thai television stations reported the wounded man was carrying explosives at the time. They said an identification card found in a satchel nearby indicated he may be of Iranian descent. The reports could not immediately be confirmed, however.
A senior Thai journalist said the suspected bomber's name was believed to be Saeed Murabi. The police are reportedly yet to speak to him.
There are other unconfirmed reports that the man was carrying a black bag and that he hurled a bomb at a taxi after the driver refused to accept him as a passenger. When police arrived at the scene, the man reportedly threw a second bomb at them, but it hit a tree and bounced back towards him and exploded, blowing his legs off. Among the four other people injured is the taxi driver at whom the suspect allegedly hurled a bomb. There are no reports of any casualties yet.
The first explosion took place at around 2 pm at the house that the man rented. The police are looking for two men who reportedly shared the house with him. The police have searched the house and have reportedly recovered three of four more bombs that they are trying to defuse.
After the first blast, the suspect was reportedly seen walking out of the house by neighbours.
Police Col. Sittiphab Baiprasert told the Associated Press that the blasts occurred about 100 yards (meters) apart on Sukhumvit Soi 71, a multilane thoroughfare with businesses and apartment blocks. He gave no other details.
There has been no official comment, but the Thai police have been quoted as saying that it's too early to call this is a terror attack.
Local media said traffic had been halted while authorities investigated.
The blasts in Bangkok and the initial reports that the man carrying the bombs could be Iranian assume significance as they come a day after bombs targeted Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia. The attack in India wounded four people, including an Israeli diplomat's wife. The bomb in Georgia was found in the car of a local employee at the Israel embassy. That bomb was defused. Israel has blamed both the successful attack and the one that was averted countries apart, on Iran and the militant group Hezbollah. Iran has denied the claims.
Thailand has rarely been a target for foreign terrorists, but the country has been on edge since last month, when a foreign suspect with alleged links to Hezbollah militants led Thai police to a warehouse filled with more than 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms) of urea fertilizer and several gallons of liquid ammonium nitrate.
Israel and the United States warned their citizens to be alert in the capital, but Thai authorities said Thailand appeared to have been a staging ground but not the target of any attack.