A bomb planted at one of Bangkok's most renowned shrines killed 16 people, including three foreign tourists, and injured dozens in an attack the government said was a bid to destroy the economy.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast at the Erawan shrine at a major intersection in the city. Thai forces are fighting a Muslim insurgency in the nation's south, but they have rarely launched attacks outside their heartland.
National police chief Somyot Poompanmuang said 16 were killed in an attack he called unprecedented in the country. He said, "It was a pipe bomb. It was placed inside the Erawan shrine."
A rescue agency said 81 people were injured and reports say most of them were from China and Taiwan.
Marko Cunningham, a New Zealand paramedic, said, "It was like a meat market. There were bodies everywhere. Some were shredded. There were legs where heads were supposed to be. It was horrific," Cunningham said, adding that the blast had left a two-meter-wide crater.
While initial suspicions might fall on Muslim separatists in the south, Thailand has been gripped for a decade by an intense and sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok. Occasional small blasts have been blamed on one side or the other.