Bangkok bomb attack.

Early yesterday morning (around 3.00am) a motor cycle rider threw a plastic bag containing a small bomb from a flyover bridge on a crowd of protesters below, at Khlong Toei fresh produce market (see earlier posts on Khlong Toei shanty town).  Fifteen vendors were wounded; two seriously.  And the blast caused chaos at the site of the protests.

Market traders have been protesting against the new owners of the site.  One of the protesters (Sujittra Damrong-siriwut) said that the 1,000 vendors gathered at the protest had received constant threats by a group of men.

The vendors are protesting against the new company which has bought the lease to manage this part of the market from the Port Authority of Thailand.  The company itself has denied that it was involved in the bombing.

The vendors are protesting against the steep hike in the rents.  The former developers had always paid 12 million baht for the site;  the new owners had won the lease by offering 61 million baht a year.  So the vendors can expect a huge rise in the rents charged for their market stalls.

The police are still investigating.