Thai blast: Hunt on for more suspects

Bangkok, August 30

The police probing Thailand`s deadliest bombing widened their search for more suspects on Sunday after a foreigner was arrested and stacks of fake passports and bomb-making materials found during a raid on a Bangkok apartment block.

Authorities said police were monitoring about 1,000 mobile phone numbers and checking photographs used in some 200 seized passports to track down members of an unspecified group they believe orchestrated the Aug. 17 attack on a Hindu shrine in Bangkok. The bombing killed 20 people and stunned Thailand.

Fourteen foreigners, seven from mainland China and Hong Kong, were among those killed in a blast the ruling junta said was intended to cripple an already flagging Thai economy.

Police have not released the identity or nationality of the 28-year-old man they arrested on Saturday. They believe he was also involved in a second, smaller bombing in the Thai capital a day after the attack at the crowded Erawan Shrine, to which Thais and Asian tourists flock daily.

The man is being held on charges of possessing illegal explosives and has been in Thailand since January 2014. "We`re not only using information about phone usage from this man, but also usage of the group," police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told media. Prawut did not elaborate on what group that might be. — Reuters