One person was seriously wounded when a grenade exploded Friday on a street in central Bangkok in the latest violence in Thailand which is still recovering from deadly protests.

The grenade was put in a plastic rubbish bag and dropped in Rangnam road near a duty-free shopping center, police said.
The injured person was a Thai man in his 30s who was searching for scrap when the blast occurred shortly after midnight.

"It was a hand grenade... The pin was removed and a rubber band wrapped around it," police Major General Vichai Sangparpai told local television.
The unnamed victim was in critical condition with shrapnel in his head, according to Rajavithi hospital where he was receiving treatment.

The blast came less than a week after a small bomb exploded at a Bangkok bus stop, killing one person and injuring 10 in an attack that rekindled tensions in the capital two months after the end of bloody anti-government protests.
About 90 people died and some 1,900 were injured in two months of mass protests and street clashes between armed troops and Red Shirts demonstrators that ended with a bloody army crackdown in May.

Deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban said he believed the grenade blast was politically motivated.
"It's regrettable that the bomber wanted to incite further unrest to show that the government cannot control the situation," he told reporters.
Suthep, who is in charge of security, said he instructed Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwon to deploy police and soldiers to patrol the city streets.

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