BANGKOK • Police are set to seek a warrant for the arrest of a 10th suspect in connection with last month's Erawan Shrine bombing, according to a source close to the investigation.

Police investigators are likely to seek court permission to issue the warrant today, the source said.

The 10th suspect had stayed with a foreign man, identified as Adem Karadag, who was the first suspect arrested in connection with the Aug 17 attack. Karadag was taken to Min Buri prison yesterday.

Royal Thai Police spokesman Lieutenant-General Prawut Tha-vornsiri said on Saturday that the police had yet to identify the man's nationality or name. But they believed that he was also involved in the bombing.

So far in the investigation, nine arrest warrants have been issued.

The Min Buri Provincial Court yesterday approved a police request for the detention of Karadag, who held a fake Turkish passport. He has been held and interrogated at a military base in Bangkok for the last week.

The suspect was brought to the court and taken to the prison under tight security by police and military personnel.

Karadag will be detained at Min Buri prison for 12 days, before the court decides again whether the detention period has to be extended. Under Thai law, a suspect can be detained for up to seven 12-day periods, or 84 days in total, before formal charges must be laid.

In addition to Karadag, a second suspect, identified by the authorities as Chinese citizen Yusufu Mieraili, was arrested on Tuesday near the Thai-Cambodian border.

His fingerprints matched those that were found on bomb-making materials in an apartment raided last weekend.

THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK