Bangkok on alert after Muslim separatist warning

BANGKOK, July 10 (Reuters) Police have beefed up security in Bangkok after an army intelligence report suggested separatists in the rebellious Muslim south might take their insurgency to the Thai capital, a spokesman said today.

Metropolitan police chief Lieutenant-General Adisorn Nonsee had ordered more checkpoints and patrols, especially in Muslim communities, to look for tipoffs or suspects, the spokesman said.

''The commissioner ordered every station to be vigilant for terror attacks or sabotage, especially bombs,'' Police Colonel Supisarn Bhakdinarinath said.

''He has told them to study details of the New Year's Eve bombs carefully and try to stop a recurrence,'' Supisarn said, referring to a series of small bombs that killed three Thais and wounded nearly 40 people, including some foreign tourists, on December 31.

Army chief-of-staff Montri Sangkasap said people in Bangkok should expect tighter security in places such as airports and department stores.

''The public should be aware but not panic,'' he told reporters.

It is unclear who planted the New Year's Eve bombs, although some police explosives experts have said the devices bore the hallmarks of the southern militants, who have waged the three-year insurgency in which more than 2,300 have been killed.

Immediately after the bombs, the generals who ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless September coup blamed Thaksin supporters.

Supisarn did not say whether he thought the bombs were planted by Muslim insurgents opposed to the overwhelmingly Buddhist state.

''Investigators must have known by now who did them, but they don't have enough evidence to arrest them,'' he said.

Reuters AGL GC1056