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chitown

Education official dies in explosion

SARABURI : A bomb at the municipal office yesterday killed a senior education official, police say.
Thammanoon Pathummal, 54, was found unconscious in a pile of debris in his third-floor office at the Muang Municipality Education Office after an explosion took place about 7.30am.
He was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Sompong Suwanpat, 56, a maid, told police she spotted a black plastic bag next to Mr Thammanoon's office when she showed up for work about 5am.
She said she opened the bag and saw a black box with red, green, black, and white wires coming from it.
But she thought it was a battery and put the bag under a coffee table.
She returned home after finishing work and only discovered the device had been a bomb after the explosion took place.
Initial examination of the blast site shows the bomb was detonated by a mobile phone, police said.
Police said they were following up on a lead they had found from examining the scene but refused to reveal details. Police said they were not ruling out any possible motives for the attack.
Methi Thammarangsi, mayor of Muang Saraburi municipality, said Mr Thammanoon was a key executive in the administration.
He said the director had worked at the office for a decade without facing a single complaint.

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chitown

My favorite part!!!

Sompong Suwanpat, 56, a maid, told police she spotted a black plastic bag next to Mr Thammanoon's office when she showed up for work about 5am.


She said she opened the bag and saw a black box with red, green, black, and white wires coming from it.But she thought it was a battery and put the bag under a coffee table.

shunpike

^^
Can't make this shit up....Thailand is death to fiction writers.

Jeremia

Yeh..and how many farang bar owners have instructed their staff on how to monitor bags going in and out of their bars / agogos and what to do when they see one and how to evacuate the bar safely and clear the area.. Without basic instructions this maid could have been a bar girl.. You want BOOM BOOM me..??!!!

ferretface

poor guy,r i p .

shunpike

Jerry,

I don't know how many bar owners, Farang or Thai, have instructed their staff on bomb awareness, if you will. They should, but that's not germane to the OP. The situation in the OP involved a municipal office, read government. I don't know how long you've been in these parts but you might not have noticed that there has been a long simmering violent situation in the south of the country. Bombings, albeit on a small scale (thank goodness), have been a not infrequent occurance, not to mention the New years' eve bombings in Bkk a couple of years ago. Politics aside, one might suspect that government offices (even municipal ones) would have a heightened awareness about such things, and that a cleaning lady might suspect a package with wires leading in and out of it, to the point where she mentions it to her supervisor, and not assume that it is a big wirey battery.

Boom Boom?? Jerry, do you just like to say "boom boom"?

Sdigit

It's just to good to be true, did Benny Hill come back from the dead to write this stuff

Oh and condolences to the relatives

shunpike

I think even Benny and his writers would have read this and said...nah..won't work mate..nobody would believe the premise.

I could say something about one less senior education official, the better...but that would be in poor taste and disrespectful of the mourning family. Even education bureaucrats merit some respect, in death if not in life.

Here's hoping for a good reincarnation.

caller

So, any news/views on why this poor soul would be the target of such a deadly device, that clearly could have maimed/killed others? This isn't the south, its not Bangkok, this happened in a provincial town similar to many others laced around the Capital.

Spitfire

^ I'd say it's probably a local thing and the cops will dig into what he was currently involved in, like land/business issues or deals, maybe upset the wrong someone with a decision or wouldn't play ball with some graft etc, honest officials can get taken out. The fact that it was set off with a mobile suggest the perp was nearby waiting for him to turn up to work to make sure they got him. Must say that the cleaner is thick as a plank though, I mean......really.......a battery?

watterinja

Shades of Pink Panther...

BobR

Hard to blame the maid and I'm sure she feels badly enough. To anyone who is sane and decent, the planting of a bomb such as this is unthinkable. Especially of your victim is an education official.

Jeremia

Everything you say is correct and well presented. What I was trying to say ( very badly) is that it is very easy on these occaisions to ridicule the Thais as you were doing..( which is why I quoted you and was not replying to the main subject) Hell I agree with you.. but those that have chosen to make Thailand their home ( I have lived here 13 years) or place of work must look inwards before repetetively critisising our hosts. I get pissed off continually hearing how stupid the Thais are and felt the need to point out that farang, on this subject (because for sure we are a target), are by far the stupidest.

My own experience of being in the military in NI for most of the 80s makes me a bit touchy on this subject...

shunpike

Thanks for the clarification, I must admit I read your post a number of times and wasn't quite sure what you were getting at. I agree that it is easy to pick on the Thais and that many times it is done needlessly, almost bullyingly, if there is such a word. I try to watch myself on that count but I found this case to be particularly laughable. The cleaning lady really is a specimen of idiocy, whatever her nationality. As silly as it is to constantly take the piss out of the Thais, it is equally silly to completely ignore incompetence on account of one's nation of birth.

Cheers

Jeremia

Yes..One thing that also crossed my mind was; Is she stupid ? ...or involved....???

shunpike

Education officials, and teachers themselves, have been major targets in the southern insurgency. I'm not saying the insurgency, or the politics surrounding it, was the reason for the bombing in Saraburi, but the targeting of Education officials is not so unthinkable here.

Jeremia

Sorry to hijack ( oops) your most excellent post..but..

Bwa bwa bwa..Martin McGuiness; Minister of Education.....:smi leylaughing:


and on this Poppy day.. I post this in memmory of all who have been killed on both sides of the troubles...