Death
toll rises in Bangkok
bomb blast
“It sounded
like thunder,” said Alexander Hotz, an American filmmaker who works in the
area. “We were sitting in the office, and at first we thought it was just an
amazingly loud rainstorm coming through. Then one of our Thai interns came back
upstairs and told us that things were going crazy.”
A BBC
correspondent said there were "body parts scattered
everywhere" and a crater, indicating a
bombing. People near the Erawan Shrine, a Hindu religious site where the
explosion took place, were hit by the “full force of the blast,” the BBC
reported. Burned motorbikes could be seen in the road.
Police
initially said they found a suspicious object near the blast site and were
concerned about a second explosion. Later, national police chief Somyot
Poompummuang told the Associated Press the object had been determined to be
harmless.
At least 18
people were confirmed dead and 117 injured, AP said, citing emergency
officials. The Bangkok Post, citing the
Royal Thai Police, put the death toll at 19.
No group
immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.
The Post said
an improvised explosive device placed inside the shrine
complex detonated at 6.55 p.m. local time. The newspaper said the
scale of the explosion set motorbikes and taxis ablaze near
the Rajprasong intersection, cite of political protests in recent years.
Deputy
Prime Minister and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan condemned the bombing
and expressed condolences to the families of the dead and injured. He
told the Post it was
too soon to say if the attacks were politically motivated.
"But
it was clear that the perpetrators intended to destroy
the economy and tourism, because it occurred in the heart of (Bangkok 's) business district," Prawit
said.
The White
House also condemned the attack and said U.S. officials would remain in
close contact with Thai authorities investigating the blast. The statement,
from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price, extended "our
deepest condolences to all those affected by the explosion."
While such
attacks are rare here, there have been smaller incidents in recent months. In
February, a small, homemade pipe bomb exploded near a Bangkok shopping mall. In March, grenades were
tossed in front of the Central Criminal Court in Bangkok ,
and in April seven people were injured in parking lot blast in the tourist island of Koh Samui .
who : Thailand officials
what : a serious explosion occurred to Bangkok
when : August 17, 2015
where : Bangkok , Thailand
why : a man put a bomb in a downtown
shopping and tourism hub
how : the bomb exploded caused at least
18 people dead and a lot of people injuiring
* keyword:
Scatter(v.)分散;消散
Crater(n.)彈坑;火山口
Improvised(n.)自製炸彈
Detonate(v.)指示;表示
Condolences(n.)哀悼
Perpetrator(n.)犯罪者
Grenade(n.)手榴彈
The worst of this terrorist attack is that we still couldn't find out who put the bomb. One of my friend was at Bangkok as this explosion took place, and she told me that many place were closed for a day also the sound of the police cars and ambulances kept for a long time. Two days after, on her way to the airport every where had a lot of armed polices, the whole country were in alert.
回覆刪除2015 was not peaceful. So many terrorist attacks happened around the world. Pray for them.
回覆刪除The news was very terrible. Why so many people want to put bomb to kill others? Did those people really do something wrong? But, if they really did, they should be punished by the justice, not the bombers. There are many random killing incident, and those are even more horrible than the transportation accidents because those things will make people lose confidence on others and feel not so good.
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