The incident took place at Ratchaprasong, which is the name of an intersection and shopping centre in the Pathum Wan district of Bankok.
One of its major attractions is the Erawan shrine, which is said to attract more tourists than any other temple in the city.
According to Reuters, local media are reporting that five people have been killed and 20 wounded. Police and ambulances rushed to the scene after the bomb went off around 7pm (1pm BST) local time.
Jonathan Head, a BBC correspondent at the scene, said there was a "huge amount of chaos, with body parts scattered everywhere".
The Erawan is an enormously popular shrine to the Hindu god Brahma but is visited by thousands of Buddhist devotees every day.
It is located on a main road through Bangkok's commercial hub and is surrounded by three major shopping malls
There have been unconfirmed reports of a second bomb near the explosion site. A bomb squad is said to be in the process of deactivating it, Singapore newspaper The Straits Times reported
There are reports that among the casualties could be foreign tourists. Some media reports suggest the death toll has reached 15 but this is unconfirmed.
Although we are not yet aware of the details of the attack, no group or individual has claimed it.
The bomb exploded at the Ratchaprasong intersection in a busy shopping district and close to the Erawan Shrine, a popular tourist attraction, Oliver Smith reports.
Several major hotel chains have branches in the vicinity, including Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Renaissance and Grand Hyatt. Lumphini Park, Bangkok’s only bit of green space, lies a few blocks to the south.
would be updating this blog post soon.
