Coconuts Bangkok has an eyewitness account from American expat Mark Mitchell, 27, who was on Sukhumvit 71 in a bus at the time of one of the bombings today Feb. 14 in Bangkok. In Mitchell’s words:
I didn’t actually see it directly. I was sitting on the bus in traffic about 200 meters away. There was a loud bang. The police got there around three minutes after the explosion. There was a body and looked like his legs were blown off from the shins down.
We got out of the bus and went to see what happened. Everyone stopped. I got off the bus. I was going to Sukhumvit so I walked towards the explosion. The explosion had blown glass from a telephone booth all over the street.
There was only one victim. And there were two black trash-bags lying on the ground next to the body and one was torn up.
He looked Thai. I didn’t see the face. But I saw the torso and the body and he looked Thai.
People were fairly calm, but nobody was running or anything like that. Some people were taking photos. People were oddly calm about it.
The police stopped traffic for a little bit. Everyone had formed a half circle around the site. Then the ambulance came but I think it was too late.
I’m quite certain he was dead. He had lost both feet and he wasn’t moving.
I didn’t see any other people that were injured or standing around. There didn’t seem to be anyone on the ground other than him.
Photos of the injured man, reportedly taken by a motorcycle taxi driver with a smartphone are here. WARNING GRAPHIC.
Klongton Police said that an explosion occurred around 2pm in front of Kasem Phithaya School on Soi Phirdipanomyong 31-33, The Bangkok Post reported.
According to the Post, witnesses told police that a man threw a bomb into a phone booth and fled.
UPDATE: Thai news agency MCOT is tweeting that the Metropolitan Deputy Police Chief said that an Iranian lost both legs in the bombing, three people were injured, and that there were no links to terrorism.
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