AUTHORITIES say the Central Festival blast is believed to be the work of the same group responsible for recent bombings in Bangkok. But the Governor of Surat Thani said the co-op blaze, on the mainland, was ''coincidental.'' Car boots were being opened and checked at Central Festival Phuket today amid tightened precautions.


PHUKET: Police around Thailand and especially in Phuket and other tourist destinations are trying to determine the significance of two explosions that rocked Central Festival shopping mall on Samui and a co-op last night.

Already on Phuket increased surveillance has been ordered at checkpoints set up to vet motorists and motorcycle riders during the Songkran New Year ''Seven Days of Danger'' road safety campaign.

The annual holiday - which extends until next Thursday - began last night and is always accompanied by temporary checkpoints.

Meanwhile, Chatpong Chathhumi, the Governor of Surat Thani province, who oversees Samui, said today that the bomb that exploded in a vehicle in the car park at Samui's Central Festival was placed in a Honda Jazz, not as first suspected in a pickup.

The blast destroyed 10 vehicles and injured seven people - including a 12-year-old Italian girl. They were taken for treatment at the island's Bangkok Hospital Samui.

A second blast caused extensive damage at a co-op and retail food court not far from the shopping mall. Ten fire trucks were required to fight that blaze, which was still smouldering today.

The shopping mall and the co-op were closed and cordoned off today.

More intense security measures throughout Thailand are expected to be announced by the government in Bangkok at any moment.

Last week, the Army-backed government lifted military law and replaced it with an equally powerful set of controls, Article 44, that invests more authority in the Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-Ocha.

The timing of the blasts appears to be aimed at creating alarm at the beginning of Thai New Year, celebrated mostly by the Songkran water festival.

Tourists usually enjoy water pistol shootouts in the streets in Bangkok, Phuket, Samui, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

Large numbers of Thais also travel to their home provinces for the extended New Year holiday.

Motorists who enter Phuket's Central Festival shopping centre in Phuket City are familiar with underside checks on entry that were until recently performed by a security guard with a mirror on a stick.

While those checks are now carried out by hidden cameras, there is seldom a check of the interior of any vehicle.

Concerns are also held that a fire at a SuperCheap convenience store outlet around 10pm last night in Phang Nga province, north of Phuket, could also be linked to the Samui blasts.

There have previously been blasts in shopping malls in the southern Thailand city of Had Yai on occasions but the 6000 deaths and damage from an insurgency in Pattani, Yala and Narrathiwat has largely been confined to those provinces on the Malaysian border.

Fairfax Media correspondent Lindsay Murdoch reports:

A car bomb has exploded at a shopping mall on the popular resort island of Samui on the eve of Thailand's new year holidays.

The island's disaster prevention chief Poonsak Sophonpathumrak told journalists the bomb was hidden in a Honda believed to have been stolen from one of three southern Thai provinces where an ethnic insurgency has killed more than 6000 people, many of them civilians, over the past decade.

Islamic militants seeking a level of autonomy in the provinces bordering Malaysia have not previously targeted civilians in Thailand's tourist areas.

If the bomb is proven to be linked to the insurgency it would send alarm bells ringing through Thailand's security agencies only days after junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha gave himself additional powers.

The bomb went off in the basement of the Central Festival shopping mall after a fashion show at 11.30pm Friday.

The force of the blast left debris scattered over a wide area, leaving the vehicle's mangled engine block and undercarriage.

Local Surat Thani governor Chatpong Chatput said a fire that occurred at a warehouse at the same time at the Sahakorn Coop food centre in Surat Thani may have been caused by explosives.

One building was destroyed. Two bombs were detonated outside a fashionable Bangkok shopping mall in February, injuring two people.

Authorities said those bombs were meant to destabilise the military regime that ousted Thailand's democratically-elected government last year after months of street protests and sporadic violence.

Samui is a popular destination for Australian tourists with hotels and other accommodation almost fully booked at this time of the year for the Songhran new year holiday and water festival.

The blast comes at a time when Thailand's tourist arrivals appeared to be picking-up after the imposition of martial law that was lifted earlier this month.

Mr Prayuth, a former army general, retains extensive powers he insists are needed to deal with any security threat or emergency under Article 44 of a new constitution.

Article 44 allows Mr Prayuth to issue executive orders to "disrupt or suppress" threats to national security or the monarchy and allows soldiers to apprehend people, if an incident occurs, without an arrest warrant. It has been heavily criticised by human rights groups.

The Thai military government - officially known as the National Council for Peace and Order - has promised to restore democracy and hold elections but has not said when it will give-up power but has repeatedly cracked down on dissent, detaining critics and censoring the media.


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