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Thailand blasts: More explosions target tourist towns | |
(35 minutes later) | |
A series of blasts across Thailand has targeted the tourist towns of Hua Hin, Phuket and other locations, leaving at least three dead and many injured. | |
They struck just hours after two bombs hit the Hua Hin resort, close to Bangkok, killing one. The town was hit again by multiple blasts on Friday. | |
No group has said it carried out the attacks, but suspicion is likely to fall on separatist insurgents. | |
The timing is sensitive as Thais mark a long weekend for the queen's birthday. | |
More reports of blasts are still coming in on Friday in what appears to be a co-ordinated series of attacks, but so far the locations include: | |
Blasts across Thailand in pictures | |
"The bombs are an attempt to create chaos and confusion," PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said to reporters. "We should not make people panic more." | |
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok says that if it turns out insurgents are behind these attacks it would mark a significant change of tactics after a 12-year conflict which has killed more than 6,000 people, but has never targeted tourists. | |
The choice of Hua Hin as a target is also significant, our correspondent adds, being known as a royal city and the king's favoured residence outside Bangkok. | |
Small improvised bomb attacks have frequently been used in Thailand at times of political unrest, but since the military took power in a coup in May 2014 such attacks have been extremely rare. | |
This comes just days before the one-year anniversary of the bomb blast at the Erawan shrine in Bangkok that killed 20 people. | |
Last week Thais voted in a referendum which approved a new constitution that will strengthen the military's influence in politics for many years. |