Story highlights
Police: Female suspect is in Turkey with her husband, would return to Thailand
Wanna Suansan, 26, is the first suspect Thai police have named
The hunt follows the earlier arrest of a man initially thought to be Turkish
Thailand’s police chief has said a reward worth three million baht ($83,000) will be given to his own men for their work in apprehending a male suspect in the deadly bombing at a popular Bangkok shrine.
Speaking at a press conference Monday, Somyot Poompanmuang said his officers deserved it for their “talent and ability” during the investigation.
So far, one man has been arrested and warrants issued for two other people in connection with the bombing at Bangkok’s Erawan Shrine on August 17 that killed 20 people and injured many others.
Earlier on Monday, national police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri told CNN they were searching for a man and a woman after bomb-making materials were found at a second apartment in the capital.
Images of the two suspects, a Thai woman and an unidentified man, were made public during a televised statement by Thai police Monday afternoon, following a Sunday raid on their Minburi suburb residence.
The unidentified male is seen in a police sketch with dark hair and a mustache.
First named suspect
The woman from the photo released by police, in which she is wearing a hijab, is 26-year-old Wanna Suansan. She’s originally from Phang Nga, a province in southern Thailand, Prawut told CNN.
She is the only suspect Thai authorities have identified by name to date, but her mother has told police that she left Thailand two months ago “to stay with her husband in Turkey,” police Col. Saharat Saksilapachai said.
Wanna herself has denied any involvement, according to the police official. She admitted renting an apartment room in Bangkok, though she claimed she gave it up almost a year ago.
She said that she’s in Turkey with her baby and husband, who is Turkish, according to Saharat. The police colonel added that he believed Wanna would willingly come back to Thailand and answer authorities’ questions “if the government would help her come home.”
Despite her denials, Saharat said Thai police still consider Wanna a suspect.
Earlier raid
Meanwhile, the unidentified man police have in custody has denied any involvement, despite the discovery of bomb-making material, including fuses, at his home in another suburb in the Thai capital Saturday, according to Prawut, the national police spokesman.
However, he is not the man in a yellow T-shirt and dark-framed glasses who was identified from surveillance video as the chief suspect in the bombing, Prawut said.
“The man we have is not the man in the sketch, but we believe he is part of the network which carried out the two bomb incidents,” he said.
Prawut initially said the suspect arrested Saturday was a Turkish national. But he subsequently told CNN: “At first we thought he is Turkish. But we just found out two Turkish passports he is holding are all fake.
“We also found many empty fake passports, also various kinds of evidence.”
READ: Bangkok blast victim: ‘I lost everything’
Prawut said investigators hunting for clues had “also found the same type of ball bearings in this man’s apartment.”
High-ranking police officers, forensic experts and army personnel were all seen outside the building shortly after news of the arrest broke.
The apartment is in the Nong Jok suburb, an area known to house a large Muslim community.
No claim of responsibility
Meanwhile, authorities have said the main suspect they’re seeking is an unidentified foreigner – the man in the yellow T-shirt – who was caught on surveillance video hiding a backpack under a bench at the shrine minutes before the bomb detonated.
At least 10 people may have taken part in the bombing, but the attack is unlikely to be linked to international terrorist groups, Thai authorities said.
Police said a week ago that they no longer believed that three other people seen near the main suspect on surveillance video were involved in the attack.
CNN’s Elizabeth Joseph in Hong Kong, Laura Smith-Spark in London and Greg Botelho in Atlanta contributed to this report.