Business in Hat Yai returning to normal after car bombing

BANGKOK, April 10 (TNA) - Business in Hat Yai of Songkhla province is returning to normal, in the wake of a fatal car bombing attack at the Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel on March 31, but authorities say that tight security measures will be continued in the southern Thai business hub throughout the upcoming traditional Thai New Year or Songkran Festival, starting later this week. About 1,000 police, soldiers and volunteers have been deployed in Hat Yai to ensure public safety, as 22 victims of the March 31 car bombing in Hat Yai have still been hospitalized, five of them have remained in intensive care units (ICU), and local authorities have found that suspects arrested in nearby Pattani province had been involved in bombings in many locations. Meanwhile, a Hat Yai Midnight Songkran fair is prepared on Nipat Uthit 3 and Saneha Nusorn roads, as Hat Yai's tourism director said the number of visitors from neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore to Hat Yai in the Songkran Festival this year should be comparable to the same period of last year and, despite the March 31 bombing, hotel room reservations have remained considerable. Repair is being accelerated at the Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel, which is expected to be reopened on April 12, but its plaza area will need some more times for reconstruction. Regarding a recent car bombing in nearby Pattani province, Deputy National Police Chief Police General Worapong Chiewpreecha acknowledged that many suspects having been arrested after the violence were also involved in bombings in Yala province and Hat Yai. According to the deputy national police chief, the black Honda Civic car which carried bombs to the Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel in Hat Yai had also been used in car bombings in the Kalo locality of Yala's Raman district although the arrested suspects have not yet cooperated well with security authorities. (TNA)