Southeast Asia

Nov 5, 2005

Bangkok media offices bombed
By ThaiDay

BANGKOK - A bomb went off at Ban Phra Arthit, the headquarters of Manager Media Group in Bangkok, on Thursday night shortly after 10pm.

A security guard, standing about 10 meters from the explosion, said, "There was a loud blast and a flash of red light, and then lots of white smoke."

He believed that the bomb had been thrown over the compound's two-meter-high wall.

The offices belong to the Manager Media Group, which publishes, among other titles, the English-language ThaiDay and the Thai-language Manager Daily newspapers.

The bomb caused damage to foliage planted along the interior of

the concrete wall. Due to the late hour, few employees were left in the compound and no one was injured.

The guard said that he had observed a dark sedan containing two suspicious-looking men parked in the road close to the wall.

Major Colonel Suebpong Karuna, the chief investigator on the scene from the Chana Songkhram police station, said. "The bomb was intended as a threat, not to kill." After an initial inspection, he confirmed that only minor damage had been done to the wall.

The attack, he said, could likely stem from several motives, including an attempt to threaten Sondhi Limthongkul, the founder of the Manager Media Group and an outspoken critic of the government led by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. (See Thaksin meets the press - in court, Asia Times Online, November 2.)

(Copyright 2005 ThaiDay)

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