The bomb landed on the dance floor at the foot of an outdoor stage. Three people died and 48 were wounded at a festival in the northern Thai province of Tak on the night of Dec. 13, 2024.
An improvised explosive device went off in Umphang district, near the Myanmar border, during the Red Cross Doi Loyfa fair. Two died at the scene. A third died later in hospital. Six of the wounded were critical.
Somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000 people were there, and the blast hit on the fair’s second-to-last night. Police were alerted around 23:30 local time. Video posted online showed panic, rescuers and festivalgoers scrambling toward the injured.
Thai police arrested two men: a Thai youth, and a man said to belong to the Karen National Union, the ethnic rebel group that has fought Myanmar’s military for decades. Samrit Ekamol, the police chief for Tak, said the man from Myanmar threw the bomb after running into a “rival gangster” he had clashed with before.
The KNU denied any role. A senior official told AFP the group had no members in the area, and it offered condolences in a Facebook statement. “We will cooperate with the Thai government to bring about justice. We do not accept this type of terrorist action and condemn it,” the group said.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra sent her sympathy to the families and ordered security agencies to investigate. Umphang is the southernmost district of Tak, on the province’s western edge against Myanmar.
Sources
- Two detained after bomb kills three at Thai festival | The Straits Times
- Three killed and dozens injured by bomb at Thai festival
