Police defuse suspected bomb near Thai PM house

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai police said on Thursday they had
stopped what they believed to be preparations for a bomb attack
on Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s house in Bangkok.

A man they had been following for several days was detained
after he parked a car at a busy intersection near Thaksin’s
house and police found ingredients for a fertilizer bomb inside
it, police said.

“What we found was urea fertilizer packed in a 10-gallon
jerry can that could be made into a bomb, but the bomb had not
been put together,” a policeman at the scene said.

“We doused it with water from high-pressure hoses,” police
Colonel Sathorn Saisomboon told Reuters after roads in the busy
area were closed to traffic.

The detained man was believed to be an army lieutenant and
denied owning the car, said a senior police officer who
declined to be identified.

The incident occurred on the first official day of
campaigning for a general election re-run scheduled for October
15, and followed scuffles between Thaksin supporters and
opponents which raised fears of violence.

Thaksin called a snap general election in April to counter
a growing street campaign to oust him by opponents accusing him
of corruption and abuse of power, charges he denied.

But a boycott by the main opposition parties meant it was
inconclusive. The courts ruled it unlawful and ordered a
re-run.