BANGKOK: -- Forensic specialist investigating the Ratchaprasong deadly bomb explosion Monday blast have discovered strange bomb shards and shrapnel which they say are not normally seen in devices in past bombings in the country.
Specialists from both the police and military have been collecting shrapnel and bomb fragments at the site since Monday night and what they found was a device that is not normally used in past bombings in Thailand.
Fragments discovered at the blast site are made up of a section of metal tubing and 2 types of metal pellets.
The metal tubing is between 1.5 – 2 cm in thickness and authorities believe it was used to contain the explosives.
More than 100 metal pellets have been collected and they came in 2 sizes.
Some were 0.6 cm in diameter and the remainder was 0.8 cm and was employed as fragmentation to cause maximum damage.
The bomb is believed to have contained high grade explosives but it has not been determined yet whether TNT or C4 explosive was used.
Authorities suspected a timer – either a digital wrist watch or a mobile phone; was used to set the device off.
Earlier Royal Thai Police commissioner Pol Gen Somyot Poompunmuong said, “We have not yet determined the type of explosives material used. What we know is that the device was contained in a metal tube and wrapped with a piece of white cloth.”
The materials used in this device differ from other devices in other past bombings and authorities suspect that the bomber was highly skilled as only 3 – 5 pounds of explosives was used but metal pellets were used to exponentially increase the amount of damage.
The force of the detonation resulted in fatalities at the scene and caused damage on structures as far away as 50 meters.
Buildings on the periphery of the blast such as the Police General Hospital, Gaysorn Plaza and the Hyatt Erawan Hote, some 50-100 metres away, suffered glass damage from debris and the force of the explosion.
But surprisingly, the main Erawan Shrine which sits only five metres from the deadly explosion site, suffered only slight damage.
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