Thai police confirmed yesterday that a bomb was responsible for an explosion and fire which tore through a Thai Airways jet that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was scheduled to board.
The announcement came as Thaksin called for international investors to remain calm and urged the media not to jump to hasty conclusions about plots involving "internal politics."
"Don't speculate yet about the purpose of the bomb, and don't speculate that it has to do with internal politics," said the prime minister who earlier alleged the incident appeared to be an assassination attempt.
Police said their investigation was nearing completion and that a bomb had triggered the fierce fire which gutted the Boeing 737-400 at Bangkok airport's domestic terminal on Saturday, killing one member of the cabin crew and injuring seven others.
"We can identify that it was a bomb, but cannot identify yet what kind of bomb or where it was and what its purpose was," said Deputy Commissioner General of Police Sant Sarutanond.
"The bomb was not located in luggage in the cargo hold. The center of explosion was near seats 34, 35 and 36," said Sant. "We don't know yet if it was placed on the floor or under the seat."
That location would place the explosion further towards the back of the plane than investigators initially thought.
Sant said after questioning 39 witnesses, police had completed about 80 percent of their investigation "and can conclude the police part of the investigation by this afternoon."
Thaksin said on Sunday that a bomb caused the fire and described it as an assassination attempt.
"According to the information I have received, there are several kinds of chemicals that can be made into a bomb," Thaksin told reporters yesterday at his office in Bangkok.
"Investigators also found dynamite, and will prove what was the source of the bomb," he said.
Evidence of numerous chemicals used to make bombs, including Semtex, TNT and white phosphorous, has been identified from material pulled from the wreckage of the plane, according to local news reports.
Semtex is commonly used by terrorists since it is rarely detected by X-ray machines at airports.
White phosphorous is an incendiary chemical that burns at extremely high temperatures and is capable of burning through metal.
A team of investigators from Boeing, the plane's manufacturer, arrived in Bangkok yesterday to begin an inquiry.
A fence had been erected at the airport yesterday to block the sight of the plane's charred remains.
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