Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha denied rumours he had declared a state of emergency and ordered schools and businesses closed Tuesday. The Bank of Thailand also declared a rumour that it would call a bank holiday on Tuesday, according to Ronadol Numnonda, assistant governor of the supervision group.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced around 10pm, however, that all 438 city schools would be closed Tuesday for safety reasons. Triam Udom Suksa and Materdei schools standing in the vicinity of the explosion scene would be closed on Tuesday too.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan expressed condolences to the families of the dead and injured victims. He said it was too soon to say if the attacks were politically motivated or terrorism.
"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," Gen Prawit said, condemning the act.
It was clear, he said, human casualties were the goal of the attack.
But Defence spokesman Kongcheep Tantrawanich said later the bombing was “the work of those who have lost political interests and want to destroy the ‘happy time’ of Thai people. It’s an attempt to ruin Thailand’s tourism image and cause damage to the country’s business sector.”
The incident targeted the lives of innocent people in a public venue, Maj Gen Kongcheep said, adding similar violent incidents have occurred in Bangkok and other provinces in recent years.
“The group behind the bomb must stop the savage act done to their fellow Thais and stop hurting the nation,” Maj Gen Kongcheep said.
Police said the IED that exploded inside the shrine area was composed of three kilogrammes of TNT stuffed in a pipe and wrapped with white cloth. Its destructive radius was estimated at 100 metres. Authorities quickly recovered an electronic circuit suspected to be part of the device about 30 metres from the blast scene.