Thai police have issued an arrest warrant for an individual they described as a "foreign man", in connection with a bomb blast in Bangkok that killed 20 people, including many foreigners.
The warrant says police are seeking "a foreign man, unnamed, according to the sketch", referring to a sketch released earlier in the day that showed a fair-skinned man with thick, medium-length black hair, a wispy beard and black glasses.
The man could be of "mixed origin", a police spokesman said.
Thai police also said the man was overheard speaking a foreign language other than English.
Police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang told an earlier news conference that it was not clear how many people were involved in the attack or if they were still in the country.
"I don't suspect one person, I suspect many people," he said.
"I am confident that there are Thais involved but I am not saying it is just Thais or that there are foreigners."
Yesterday, a day after the bombing at the popular Erawan shrine in the heart of Bangkok, grainy CCTV footage was released showing a young man dumping a backpack at the scene and walking away.
The government says the attack was aimed at wrecking the economy, which depends heavily on tourism.
No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, which according to the latest official toll killed 20 people – more than half of them foreigners from several Asian countries – and wounded more than 120.
Deputy police chief Jaktip Chaijinda said earlier that investigators believed the man on the video resembled a foreigner more than a Thai.
At least two foreigners have been interviewed in connection with the blast, police said.
Yesterday, a small explosive was thrown from a bridge towards a river pier, sending a plume of water into the air, but no one was hurt.
A government spokesman initially said there were "patterns" linking the two bombs in that both used the explosive TNT, but police chief Somyot said no direct connection between them had been established.
Police Major General Pornchai Suteerakune, commander of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, said the bodies of almost all those killed at the shrine had wounds inflicted by ball bearings that were packed into the bomb.
The shrine reopened today.
The CCTV footage of a young man with a yellow T-shirt and shaggy dark hair shows him entering the shrine compound with a backpack on, sitting down against a railing and then slipping out of the bag's straps.
He then stands up and walks out apparently holding a mobile phone, leaving the bag by the fence as tourists mill about.
A police spokesman said a sketch of the man had been completed and facial recognition technology would be used to try to identify him, but he added that it was possible the suspect was in disguise at the time.
"We believe it is a network and not just one person operating alone. From looking at the CCTV footage we think that the yellow shirt man was maybe operating with one or two other people at the scene," he added, without elaborating.
He had earlier tweeted that police were offering a one million baht (€25,000) reward "to whoever can give information that leads to the arrest of the suspect".
Police have not ruled out any group, including elements opposed to the military government, for the attack, though they say it did not match the tactics of Muslim insurgents in the south or 'red shirt' supporters of the previous administration.
