Police said a bomb disposal squad discovered and destroyed three other explosive devices found near a rubbish dump and under rocks near the Golden Mermaid statue.

Thai court convicts 9 young Muslim men in Bangkok bomb plot

The insurgency has mostly affected the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, which have Muslim majorities in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Songkhla, with a substantial Muslim population, has generally been spared the violence, though its biggest city, Hat Yai, has suffered several bombings.

Although terrorism is not considered a major problem in Thailand, tourist spots have been sporadically targeted since 2006, when a series of bombs were set off in Bangkok at New Year’s Eve gatherings, killing three people and wounding more than three dozen.

In 2016, bomb explosions in five beach towns popular with tourists killed four people and wounded dozens.

In both cases, southern separatists were suspected but responsibility was never definitively established.

One of the worst attack in recent years occurred at the Erawan Shrine in the centre of Bangkok’s tourist district in August 2015. Twenty people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed and more than 100 hurt.

Thai authorities blamed human traffickers angry at a crackdown, but another theory holds that it was carried out by militants from China’s Muslim Uygur minority in retaliation for Thailand sending back to China a group of Uygurs who had fled repression there. Two Uygur men are currently on trial for the bombing.