Backgrounder: Bangkok bombings in recent years
Xinhua, August 18, 2015 Adjust font size:
A motorcycle bomb attack hit the Thai capital of Bangkok on Monday, killing at least 16 people outside a popular Hindu shrine and injuring dozens of others.
"The perpetrators intended to destroy the economy and tourism, because the incident occurred in the heart of the tourism district," Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the incident, which occurred at the Erawan shrine at a major city-center intersection.
Thai forces are fighting a low-level Muslim insurgency in the predominantly Buddhist country's south, but those rebels have rarely launched attacks outside their ethnic Malay heartland.
The following is a review of the blasts in Bangkok in recent years:
On Feb. 22, 2015, a 12-year-old boy and a 40-year-old woman were killed and 22 injured in a bomb blast near an anti-government protest site.
On Jan. 19, 2014, an explosion in a busy Bangkok shopping district killed two people and injured 22, a day after a young girl died and dozens were hurt in an attack on a protest rally.
On Jan. 19, 2014, 28 people were wounded and seven others seriously injured in explosions at a camp of anti-government protesters. The blast was among the frequent violence in a prolonged political crisis dividing the country and threatening the Thai economy.
On Feb. 14, 2012, an Iranian man carrying grenades blew off his own legs and wounded four civilians after an earlier blast shook his rented house. Police later found C-4 plastic explosives in the house. Israel's defense minister accused Iran of being behind the violence.
On Sept. 24, 2010, three people were injured when a bomb hidden in a garbage bin exploded in the evening.
On Aug. 26, 2010, a man was injured in a bomb blast in a duty-free shopping outlet in central Bangkok at the site of an earlier grenade attack as the city remained under emergency rule after deadly protests. Endi