Porntip: Sala Daeng grenades proven to be shot from Chulalongkorn Hospital

[shygye]

... so I was right. Fired from a bldg down toward the station.

[Gadfly]

No military experience, but wiki says the maximum range of a M 79 launcher is 400 meters. If they are not accurate from a distance, as you (and I have heard other say) say, the origin would likely be less than 400 meters, right? Couldn't you draw concentric circles around where they landed based on the probable range and then, based on the angle, figure out the likely origin? Or am I missing something here? (Since I don't know anything more about M 79s than what I can find on the internet, I am certainly open to that possibility).

[TheCorinthian]

The M79 accuracy is not bad (and its range is good too) so much that some US troops recently used some M79 rather than its successor...

 

 

I used them less than a year ago. I disagree.

 

[BaronTT]

Porntip takes Chula flak over grenade attack theory

 

* Published: 6/05/2010 at 12:00 AM

* Newspaper section: News

 

Chulalongkorn Hospital has rejected speculation by forensic expert Porntip Rojanasunan that attackers might have used one of its buildings to fire grenades at Silom Road on April 22.

 

Adisorn: ‘Comments mar hospital image’

 

Hospital director Adisorn Phattharadul yesterday voiced concern over her interview about the grenade attack. He said her comments were unclear and could "cause confusion and mar the hospital's image".

 

The director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science told reporters on Wednesday the attacks on Silom Road, where multi-coloured shirt people gathered to protest the red shirt rally, [color:orange][color:red]could be divided into two cases, according to her team's initial grenade trajectory investigation.[/color][/color]

 

[color:red]One grenade fired from an M79 launcher, which fell on the roof of the Sala Daeng skytrain station, was believed to have come from a spot near the King Rama VI monument, which was close to the rally venue of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship.[/color]

[color:red]

Khunying Porntip said a second grenade that landed near a Bank of Ayudhya branch, might have been fired from the 7th or 8th floor of the hospital's Phor Por Ror building.[/color]

 

Khunying Porntip, who inspected both floors, said traces of nitrate were found but she had not been able to identify whether this was explosives or fertiliser. Her team also found traces of gunpowder in a woman's lavatory on the 8th floor.

 

Dr Adisorn was unconvinced by Khunying Porntip's theory. He said local police and officers from the Department of Special Investigation, who recently inspected the hospital, had not yet reached a conclusion on the attacks.

 

The hospital usually uses the 7th and 8th floors for outpatients. Nobody stays there overnight. Their balconies were also too narrow for use to fire grenades, he said.

 

"The hospital is ready for inspection," he said. "But I personally believe it [the assumption] is impossible."

 

Khunying Porntip yesterday said what she had discussed in her interview was only a possibility, not a definitive conclusion. However, she had to focus her inspections on the [color:red]Rama VI monument and the hospital because many witnesses said they saw the grenades fired from those directions.[/color]

 

"I only said there's a possibility the grenades were fired from a certain floor of the building or nearby high-rise buildings," Khunying Porntip said.

 

"Dr Adisorn should not jump to conclusions if he didn't listen directly to the speaker."

 

DSI chief Tharit Pengdit said Khunying Porntip was only offering a "technical opinion". The DSI had still not come to a conclusion on the case and it needed to check all the evidence, he said.

 

Chulalongkorn Hospital has started accepting patients back who were transferred elsewhere for their safety.

 

About 20 out of 129 patients in Bangkok and the provinces had contacted the hospital asking to resume treatment after the announcement it was ready to take them back, Dr Adisorn said.

 

He said there were between 400 and 500 beds to accommodate patients at buildings near Henri Dunant Road, which is quite far from the UDD rally venue.

 

Patients were moved from the hospital on Friday, a day after the UDD raided the hospital to search for soldiers.

 

The conflict between the hospital and the protesters eased when the red shirts decided to withdraw their blockade of the hospital's gate on Ratchadamri Road.

 

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/36864/porntip-takes-chula-flak-over-grenade-attack-theory

[ThaiHome]

 

Here's a google earth thing someone on TV did. I still the most likely place is near the statue in Lumpini Park.

From memory, when you fire a M-79 you lob into the air which means the flyover would not be in the way. There is no way the grenade that landed almost on Soi Thaniya could have come from the hospital. The high rise on the corner is in the way.

TH

[BaronTT]

Reading the 14:19 May 5th post again, it seems that Pornthip does say that the grenades were fired from different locations. That is also consistent with today's article and also the articles prior to yesterday's.

 

"The director however could not conclude if the grenade attacks at BTS Sala Daeng station and in front of Bank of Ayudhya near Dusit Hotel were instigated by the same perpetrators or not [color:red]due to different projectile directions[/color]."

 

 

So yes, those articles imply that the impact points you mention caused by one or more launch sites in the area close to the statue.