Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt Thursday, after police defused explosives in a car roaming near his residence in southern Bangkok in the morning and detained two suspects said to belong to a Thai army institution.

Thaksin confirmed media reports that two soldiers driving a car carrying explosives were stopped by police after they were spotted by guards posted at his residence.

Police said that they found inside the silver-grey Daewoo car 67.35 kilograms of TNT explosives, and some urea fertilizer, which is often used to make bombs.

"It's my lucky day," the caretaker PM said on Thai television, explaining that he has been varying his schedule after the intelligence services told him about danger of assassination. "If I hadn't left an hour earlier than usual, I might not be here now."

He said he left home early because he had a meeting to attend at 8:30 a.m.

He said that several other attempts have been made to harm him in recent months when traveling on official duties. He alluded to "incidents" at military airports and a recent car crash that involved a car in one of his convoys.

Thailand's police chief presided over the still ongoing interrogation of the two suspects, who tried to flee but later was arrested on a charge of illegally possessing explosives. They were identified as serving with the Thai army's Internal Security Operations Command, one of whom is a lieutenant and driver of the car when stopped.

Following the incident, Deputy Chief of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), Panlop Pinmanee, was promptly sacked on Thaksin's orders. There were unconfirmed reports saying that one of the suspects is Panlop's driver.

ISOC, headed by Thaksin himself, is a relatively independent military institution founded years ago and now exists with little practical operation.

Panlop, a retired army general, later in the day denied he was trying to kill the PM, saying that the suspect in question, Lt. Thawatchai Klinchana, was no longer his driver since he reassigned the latter to Thailand's restive deep south to work as an intelligence officer about three months ago.

Panlop caused consternation earlier this year when he said a military coup could not be ruled out if political instability persists.

Thaksin, when responding local media after the incident, would not say whether firing Panlop was related to the "assassination plot", explaining only that the decision had been made "under current national security circumstance". He also said that he could not confirm whether the incident was politically motivated until investigation was completed.

However, he said he had known about an assassination plot against him for two weeks and also about whom were trying to kill him. Police investigators were quoted by local media as saying that the incident was so sensitive that they could not reveal too many details right now, and that further investigation was needed to conclude whether the car-bomb targeted Thaksin.

The Thursday incident occurred on the official kick-off day of campaigning for a general election set on October 15 after a prolonged seesaw struggle, which Thaksin is expected to win despite strong protests and criticism displayed by the opposition camps since early this year.

Thaksin called a snap election and won it this April, which was boycotted by main opposition parties and later annulled by the Constitutional Court, citing that it broke the election law.

Tension has stepped up in the capital as the new poll day draws closer, with violent clashes between Thaksin's opponents and supporters in his recent public appearances. Thaksin said that the would keep a lower profile to avoid similar clashes.

Now he had more reason to stay out of limelight. Thaksin said he would make only vital public appearances after the "assassination attempt". "I must assign routine appearances to my deputies. We can't let these people succeed."

Nearly 200 policemen were posted around Thaksin's home following the car-bomb incident, to create a temporally vehicle-free security zone extending as much as a kilometer from the house.

But atmosphere remained quite "normal", local media commented.

Editor: Yan