Metal debris were scattered over an area in Si Sa Ket on Dec 22, 2011
following a mysterious loud bangs. The army reckons the loud bangs
were from an unidentified mid-air explosion. (POST PHOTO)
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The
mysterious loud bangs heard near the Thai-Cambodian border in Si Sa Ket this
morning were from an unidentified mid-air explosion, 2nd Army chief Lt Gen
Thawatchai Samutsakhon on Thursday.
He said
there three or four reports of loud bangs about 11am.
They
occurred about 10,000 feet above tambon Sao Thongchai in Kantharalak district.
Metal
debris was later found scattered over the area. No one was injured, Lt Gen
Thawatchai said.
Two or
three similar incidents had previously been reported in this area but the cause
remained unknown. He did not believe the explosions indicated an attack by
Cambodian troops.
The reports
triggered panic in the communities in this border tambon as the villagers
assumed it was another shelling by Cambodian artillery.
Shortly
after the explosions were heard, a piece of metal about 1 metre long and half a
metre wide was found in a field at Phumsarol Witthaya School, said Chokchai
Saikaeo, president of tambon Sao Thongchai administration organisation.
The same
school was hit by artillery fire during the fighting between Thai and Cambodian
forces earlier this year.
Mr Chokchai
also said several more bits of similarly burned yellowish metal were later
found in nearby spots in the tambon.
Troops who
went to investigate the reports said the metal debris could be from a
satellite, reports said, but there was
no confirmation.
According
to Space.com, Russia's troubled, toxic fuel-loaded Phobos-Grunt spacecraft,
which is stuck in low-Earth orbit due to an engine failure rather than on its
way to Mars, appears to be doomed, with small pieces of the wayward probe already
falling to Earth. There was no confirmation that the incident in Si Sa Ket was
linked to this.
The
satellite was expected to fall back to Earth in January.
Metal
debris were scattered over an area in Si Sa Ket on Dec 22, 2011
following a
mysterious loud bangs. The army reckons the loud bangs
were from an unidentified
mid-air explosion. (POST PHOTO)
|
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