YANGON, Myanmar – An explosion that struck one of the most prestigious hotels in Myanmar’s main city was caused by a small, homemade time bomb, police said Tuesday.
Police officer Myint Htwe said three suspects have been detained in relation to the blast, which went off just before midnight Monday at the Traders Hotel in Yangon, ripping apart a guest’s room and wounding one American. It was one in a series of unexplained blasts to hit the country in recent days.
The hotel blast was followed by two small explosions before dawn Tuesday in the Mandalay region, police said, adding that there were no reports of injuries.
The blast at the 22-story Trader’s Hotel, located in the heart of the country’s commercial capital, blew out a window in the guest’s 9th floor room, shooting shards of thick glass more than 30 meters (yards) into the street, but there were no other visible signs of damage to the exterior of the building.
The device apparently went off in the guest’s bathroom, scattering towels, toiletries and a red purse across the entrance way floor. A chair was overturned and part of the wooden wardrobe lifted off its hinges and lying on the ground.