A suspect told Bangkok police he passed the bomb that struck the city centre last month to another man before the attack, police said today.

Mieraili Yusufu, 25, said he handed over the bag at a train station hours before the blast, National Police spokesperson Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters.

The explosion killed 20 people and injured more than 100.

Yusufu, arrested on the Cambodian border, earlier confessed to possessing ball bearings, fuses, black powder and timers found in an apartment in Bangkok.

Police today took him and other suspects to the train station to reenact the handover - re-enactments are a common part of Thai criminal proceedings.

Security analysts said the terrorist attack did not fit the pattern of local and regional groups.

Some have speculated that the most likely culprits were Turkish far-right groups unhappy with Thailand’s deportation of Uighur refugees to China in July.

Uighurs are a Muslim ethnic minority in north-western China who speak a language related to Turkish.

Yusufu was carrying a Chinese passport at the time of his arrest. The passport indicates that Yusufu is from XinJian in north-western China, part of the Uighur homeland.

- dpa