Chinese man sparks panic after abandoning bag at Bangkok BTS office
Police accused a Chinese man of intentionally spreading panic among the public after he left his bag at the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) headquarters in the Chatuchak area of Bangkok and quickly fled from the scene.
Officers from Bang Sue Police Station were called to investigate a suspicious bag placed in front of a Brahma shrine outside the BTS headquarters at Soi Phahonyothin 18/2 in the Chatuchak district of Bangkok at 7.30pm yesterday, March 27. For safety reasons, police investigated in collaboration with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team.
Police began by reviewing CCTV footage to identify the suspect. The footage showed a man leaving the bag at the scene before running away.
Officers were confident that the man did not possess any explosive devices, as he had carelessly abandoned the bag and made no effort to conceal his identity from security cameras.
The EOD team later opened the bag and found no dangerous or illegal items. It contained clothes, a mobile phone, a wallet, and other personal belongings.
According to the identification card found in the wallet, the bag belonged to a Chinese national from Kunming, China.
Officers suspected that the Chinese man may have intended to cause panic as a prank. However, they planned to coordinate with Immigration Bureau officials to summon him for questioning.
It is believed that the man may have been imitating the tragic bombing at the Erawan Shrine in the Pathumwan district of Bangkok in 2015.
In that incident, CCTV footage captured a suspect leaving a bag at the scene before an explosive device was detonated, killing 20 people, including both Thai and foreign nationals.
Thai police subsequently issued arrest warrants for 17 suspects involved in the attack, but only three were arrested: a Thai woman named Wanna Suansan and two Chinese ethnic Uyghur men, Bilal Mohammad (also known as Adem Karadag) and Mieraili Yusufu.
The bombing was suspected to be linked to the deportation of Uyghur nationals to China. However, the Thai government maintained that the attack was carried out by people who had lost financial benefits due to the crackdown on human trafficking in Thailand.
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