Blood on the Streets as Bomb Kills 2, Wounds 22 in Thai Capital
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A bomb killed two people and wounded at least 22 in a busy shopping district in the Thai capital on Sunday, hours after supporters of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra promised to get tough with demonstrators paralyzing parts of the city.
But it was not immediately clear who was responsible.
The bomb went off near one of the few large protest sites remaining, leaving a trail of blood and sandals on the streets near the huge Central World shopping mall, much of it in front of a shop selling tee-shirts emblazoned "Land of Smile".
Three children suffered serious head injuries, Erawan Medical Center, which monitors Bangkok hospitals, said. One died.
"One boy who we understand was 12 years old has died from injuries sustained in the blast. Another child is undergoing an operation and a third child is still in the emergency room with us," an emergency room nurse at Ramathibodi Hospital in central Bangkok, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
Erawan said a 40-year-old woman was also killed, Reuters reported.
The crisis pits mostly middle-class anti-government protesters from Bangkok and the south against supporters of Yingluck from the rural north and northeast of the country.
Both sides have blamed the other for instigating violence. Armed provocateurs have a history of trying to stir tension in politically polarized Thailand and both protesters and the police have also blamed violence on shadowy third parties.
Leaders of the pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) had vowed to "deal with" anti-government leader Suthep Thaugsuban, setting the scene for possible confrontation between pro- and anti-government groups.
"This fight will be harder than any other ... You must think how we can deal with Suthep and those supporting him," Jatuporn Prompan, a UDD leader and senior member of the ruling Puea Thai Party, told thousands of cheering supporters in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeast of the capital.
It was unclear whether Jatuporn was calling for an armed struggle, but he was speaking just hours after gunmen shot at an anti-government protest stage and threw explosive devices in the Khao Saming district of the eastern province of Trat, killing a five-year-old girl and wounding 41 people.
Anti-government protesters have blocked main Bangkok intersections for weeks with tents, tires and sandbags, seeking to unseat Yingluck and halt the influence of her billionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, an ousted former premier regarded by many as the real power behind the government.
