Assistant police chief Prawut believed the perpetrator wanted to throw the bomb onto a busy walking platform leading to the pier but missed. CCTV footage taken at the time of the explosion showed people running down a causeway over the canal to escape the blast.
Police initially dispatched divers into the canal to try to recover any surviving pieces of the bomb that Transport Minister Prajin Juntong called an "improvised explosive device". Later, sandbags and pumps were brought into to drain the impact area to hasten the search for evidence.