Bomb blast wounds 21 at army hospital

A bomb struck a Bangkok military hospital yesterday and wounded 21 people -- one seriously -- three years to the day after the Thai army seized power in the politically unstable kingdom.

The small device -- which police said was potentially deadly -- went off near the VIP section of King Mongkut hospital as patients and their families waited for prescriptions, shattering glass and sending smoke into the corridors.

Hospital director Saroj Keokajee said the "low intensity bomb" injured 21 people, among them retired military officers.

"Eight people were admitted to hospital to observe their condition... among them is one woman who needed surgery because of shrapnel buried in her jaw," he said.

Thailand has remained starkly divided since the May 22, 2014 coup, but dissent has broadly been smothered by a military with sweeping security powers.

While it was not immediately clear who was behind the blast, Thailand has a long history of bomb attacks on symbolic dates -- carried out by militant political factions or separatists linked to an insurgency in the Muslim-majority south.

Investigators said the bomb may be linked to two other similarly small devices that went off in recent weeks, one outside Bangkok's National Theatre a week ago and another left in a Bangkok bin in early April.