Fireworks seized from shop houses linked to warehouse in Narathiwat

Authorities in Su-ngai Kolok district of Thailand’s Narathiwat province have seized about a ton of fireworks from shop houses, located about 150 metres from a fireworks warehouse at which there was an explosion on Saturday, killing 12 people and injuring about 120 others. The explosion and subsequent fire also damaged about 300 houses in the warehouse’s neighbourhood.

Invoking martial law, which is still in force in Narathiwat due to the unrest, troops and provincial police searched four adjoining shop houses, selling farming equipment and belonging to Sompong, the owner of the ill-fated fireworks warehouse in Muno sub-district.

They found 133 cardboard boxes and 20 sugar sacks containing fireworks and pyrotechnic materials, with a combined weight of about a ton. Moreover, a subsequent search of a shop selling fishing equipment opposite uncovered an unspecified quantity of…