BANGKOK — A suspected grenade exploded in front of Thailand's national TV centre Tuesday in an attack the government said was intended to sow panic in Bangkok, which remains under emergency rule.
No one was injured by the explosion in front of the building housing the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand, the third attack on the state-run centre this year and the second blast in the city within a week.
Witnesses told AFP they saw the device hit a tree before it detonated, damaging six cars -- one of them badly.
"Based on circumstantial evidence it's likely to have been caused by an M-79 (grenade)," government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said.
"The attack was an attempt to create disturbance and to panic people and show there are loopholes in the government's measures," he added.
The capital has been under emergency rule since April 7 in response to anti-government "Red Shirt" protests, in which 91 people died and about 1,900 were injured in clashes between protesters and the army.
The first attack on the state-run television centre in March injured four people, while the second in April fell short of its target and caused no injuries.
A handful of explosions across Bangkok in recent weeks have unnerved the Thai capital's residents, who are still recovering from the deadly street protests in April and May.
A grenade blast last Thursday -- the second in a month at the King Power duty-free shopping outlet -- injured a security guard and ensured Bangkok would be the last province kept under emergency rule, the prime minister said.
On July 30, a grenade hidden in a plastic rubbish bag injured a Thai man in his 30s who was scavenging for scrap.
A man linked to the Red Shirt demonstrations was arrested over the explosion and police said the suspect, 23-year-old Sorathien Singkanya, admitted that the grenade belonged to him but had denied planting it himself.
That blast came less than a week after a small bomb exploded at a Bangkok bus stop, killing one person and injuring 10.
Bangkok and six other Thai provinces remain under emergency rule prohibiting public gatherings of more than five people and giving security forces the right to detain suspects for 30 days without charge.
Authorities have used the powers to arrest hundreds of suspects and silence anti-government media.
The protests by the Reds, many of whom back fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, attracted up to 100,000 people demanding immediate elections.
Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon, was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a prison sentence imposed in his absence for corruption.
After the May crackdown, Red Shirt leaders asked their thousands of supporters to disperse but enraged protesters set fire to dozens of buildings, including a shopping mall and the stock exchange.
