Bangkok blast kills woman and child, injures at least 24

2014-02-23 2

A bomb in the Thai capital has killed two people and wounded at least 24.

Three children suffered serious head injuries in the blast near Bangkok’s huge Central World shopping complex.

One of the dead is a 12-year-old boy who died from his injuries. A 40-year-old woman was also killed.

The explosion, which a local protest leader said was caused by a grenade, happened at an anti-government protest site on Sunday.

It’s Thailand’s second deadly attack of the weekend.

On Friday, six protesters were hurt by a grenade attack in the same area of the capital.

At least one person was killed on Saturday in an explosion at an anti-government rally in Thailand’s south-eastern Trad province.

Around four more were wounded.

Police said gunmen shot at a stage and threw two explosive devices at the rally about 300 kilometres east on Bangkok.

It was not immediately clear who is responsible for the grenade attacks.

Anti-government protesters have blocked main Bangkok intersections for weeks with tents, tyres and sandbags, seeking to unseat Yingluck and halt the influence of her billionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, an ousted former premier regarded by many as the real power behind the government.

The protests are the biggest since deadly political unrest in 2010, when Thaksin’s “red shirt” supporters paralysed Bangkok in an attempt to remove a government led by the Democrat Party, now the opposition.

Bangkok’s Central World shopping complex was one of the properties set on fire during the 2010 unrest.