Bomb explodes in downtown Bangkok

updated 7:59 a.m. ET May 6, 2007

BANGKOK, Thailand - A bomb exploded near a telephone booth in downtown Bangkok on Saturday, wounding one person, Thai police said.

The bomb was planted in a side street of the bustling Thai capital, police spokesman Ronnarong Yangyaen said.

The iTV television channel said the slightly wounded person was a 22-year-old man.

Police and bomb squads rushed to the scene to investigate the attack and authorities sealed off the area to vehicles and public.

"We cannot speculate about the culprit (behind the attack) for the time being," Bangkok's police superintendent Lt. Gen. Adisorn Nontree told reporters.

Thailand has been rocked by both political instability following a military coup last September which ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and a bloody Muslim insurgency in its southernmost provinces.

Nine bombs exploded in the Thai capital on New Year's Eve, killing three people and wounding more than 40. Authorities have yet to unravel the motives behind the attacks or arrest the perpetrators but it is generally believed that politics rather than the insurgency were behind the bombings.

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