Pattani—
At 11:30 PM, on April 25th, 2024, Mae Lan police officers received a report that a group of more than 20 armed southern suspects allegedly held workers captive, committed arson attacks, and planted bombs at an electrical plant on Yala-Pattani Road, Mae Lan, Pattani.
After receiving the report, Mae Lan police and relevant agencies were dispatched to the incident scene and found a group of electrical workers fleeing for their lives to the front of the plant. The officers could witness fires inside the plant from afar.
The firetrucks were urgently requested to extinguish the fires as they could spread further to other buildings. After a 30-minute operation, the firefighters were able to put the fires under control.
It was reported that the armed southern suspects allegedly planted bombs in various important locations including a water treatment building, a panel control room, a turbine installation room, air compressors, and a woodchip storage building.
According to Thai national media, the estimated damage was initially evaluated at 27 million baht.
Upon the police investigation, a group of electrical workers reportedly told the police that 10 armed suspects in black uniforms infiltrated from the back of the plant and 10 others went from the front and allegedly pointed firearms at them.
The workers reportedly added that the suspects in black uniforms allegedly shouted that they would plant 10 bombs inside the electrical plant before using multiple improvised explosive devices contained in 10-kilogram gas tanks to commit the attack. Some of the suspects allegedly committed multi-arson attacks on cars and buildings.
At 12:30 AM, the workers were chased out of the plant and the bombs were denoted simultaneously, according to the police.
The police noticed that the suspects knew the electrical plant’s interior structures and important locations of machines and systems very well. Initially, the police assumed that insiders sabotaged or were part of the attack.
Nobody was injured from the incident and no suspect was detained, noted TPN.
The police would investigate further and gather evidence from the crime scene to find the connection to which group of suspects they belonged to.
This article originally appeared on our sister website The Pattaya News.
