By Max Constant
BANGKOK
An explosion shook a pier crowded with foreign tourists in central Bangkok on Tuesday, the day after a bomb blast killed 20 people and injured more than 120 others at a Hindu shrine in the city.
As authorities attempted to identify a suspect caught on security cameras before Monday's blast, tourists narrowly escaped injury after an unidentified assailant threw a device onto a platform crowded with pedestrians at 12.59 p.m. (05.59GMT).
The Bangkok Post reported Assistant Police Chief Prawut Thawornsiri as saying that an improvised pipe bomb thrown from Sathorn Bridge -- which crosses the Chao Phraya river above the landing pier -- hit a pillar and bounced into a canal where it detonated harmlessly.
Video shows the device missing the target and landing near the pier. As it explodes, it sends a plume of water shooting into the air and people running down a causeway in fear.
Thawornsiri said he believed the perpetrator intended to throw the bomb onto a busy walking platform leading to the pier, but missed.
No one was reported injured in the attack.
It is not known if the two instances are related, but as is the case with the central Bangkok area in which 20 people died Tuesday, the pier on Bangkok's Chao Phraya River is a major stop for tourists - "especially for Chinese tour groups", underlined the Post
The southern separatist insurgency, which has existed since the 1960s but intensified in the last decade, has killed more than 6,500 people since 2004.
The tense political situation in Bangkok could also be a possible motive.
The junta, which seized power from the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in May last year, is facing mounting resistance from some parts of the population because of restrictions on civil liberties.
Military leaders are also trying to introduce a constitution that would limit the power of elected politicians.
Elsewhere, members of a military rival to Chan-ocha’s group are also said to be unhappy about the quasi-monopoly of the junta leaders' comrades in commandment posts.
Chief Pumpanmuang said Tuesday that he has not ruled out any motives, including the sending of Uighur held in Thai detention centers to China.
In July, Thailand deported 109 Uighur to China -- sparking anger in Turkey, home to a large Uighur diaspora -- while feeding concern among rights groups that they could be mistreated upon their return.
On Monday, China's top news website Sina tweeted #BangkokBlast targeted Chinese tourists, revenge on recent #Uighur case.
