Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
A car bomb exploded late Friday in an underground parking garage on the popular Thai resort island of Samui, injuring seven, The Telegraph reported.
The bomb was placed inside a stolen packed inside a stolen Mazda pickup truck with false license plates in a parking area for the Central Festival mall.
Six Thais and a 12-year-old Italian girl suffered minor injuries and were quickly released from the hospital.
Bomb squad experts are examining the wreckage for clues as to who is behind the attack, but Thai national police spokesman Lieutenant General Prawut Thavornsiri confirmed with French News Agency AFP, "It's a car bomb but we cannot confirm what type of explosive materials they used,"
One possibility on the table for authorities is that the bombing could have been an act of protest by Muslim rebels against the military junta government that took over Thailand in a coup last year. The pickup truck was stolen the southern Thai province of Yala, a Muslim-majority province right in the middle of the most intense anti-junta fighting.
However, A spokesman for the military's Internal Security Operation Command said there had been no data to suggest the rebels were planning to expand their sphere of operations.
But "it's possible insurgents with bomb-making skills were hired to attack for other purposes", Colonel Banphot Phunphien told reporters, without explaining further.
In the meantime Thailand's junta is reassuring tourists about the country's safety. After all, Samui is a major contributor to the Thai economy, as 20 million tourists visit the island per year.
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