Key Bangkok bomb suspect ‘fled to Turkey’

A key suspect in August’s deadly Bangkok shrine bombing has fled to Turkey, Thai police say.

They believe Abudusataer Abudureheman, also known as Ishan, organised the bombing, which killed 20 people.

The 27-year-old from China’s Xinjiang province is thought to have travelled to Istanbul at the end of August.

Earlier Malaysian police announced the arrests of three people suspected of helping the bombers flee. Thai police have already arrested two suspects.

Over the weekend, an arrest warrant was issued for Mr Abudureheman. Police say he left Thailand for Bangladesh on 16 August, one day before the bombing.

“He departed Dhaka on 30 August for Delhi… From Delhi, he continued his travel to Abu Dhabi, and from Abu Dhabi he travelled on 31 August to Istanbul. This is his final destination,” a police spokesperson said.

No group has said it carried out the attack at the Erawan shrine on 17 August, but Thailand has alleged that a network that includes foreigners was behind the bombing.

One of the suspects already arrested, Yusufu Meraili, is a Chinese national born in Xinjiang, according to police. They say he has already confessed to handing a backpack to the suspected bomber at Bangkok’s main railway station shortly before the blast.