Bangkok's Kiwi hero: 'I've seen a lot of things but this was devastation'

Marko Cunningham a Paramdeic with the Bangkok Free Ambulance. Photo / Supplied

Kiwi-born Marko Cunningham's seen it all in his 15 years as a volunteer medic in Bangkok.

There have been coups, protests, a tsunami and small bombs - politically motivated blasts designed to intimidate.

But the deadly explosion that rocked the Erawan Shrine in the Thai capital on Monday night was something else.

By day Mr Cunningham, formerly of Upper Hutt, teaches science to young children, standards ones and two.

Every second night he volunteers as a medic with Bangkok Free Ambulance Services and scoots around the busy streets delivering first aid and taking people to hospital. With the teaching added in, it's a 16-hour day.

The bombing wasn't in his beat but he got a call saying there was a blast and rode there to help.

"As I walked over to the shrine I was just shocked. I've seen a lot of things but this was devastation," Mr Cunningham told NZME News Service.

"It was like people were shredded by a powerful powerful bomb. We've had bombs before in Bangkok but they've always been to intimidate people.

"People get hurt but it's very rare that someone dies. The thing here was plainly designed to kill and maim.

"This bomb, it fractured bones. Every single person had a broken bone. We'd do something about their wound and then realise their bones were also broken."

After barely sleeping the night of the bombing, Mr Cunningham was out like a light last night for 12 hours.

His pupils at school are a welcome distraction from the horrors of the blast aftermath, which Mr Cunningham is dealing with in his "just bottling things up" way.

"It's just the way rescue workers deal with things like that. We don't thank about it. Yesterday I nearly broke down because I started talking about it."

One image that will be tough to forget was a young man holding the hand of his dead girlfriend.

"I was the one that had to break his hand away."

Mr Cunningham arrived at the blast site to see an injured man being tended to by someone else.

When he went to treat the man he was waved towards the shrine where he saw the deadly carnage.

There was no point in creating a triage because everyone was severely injured, Mr Cunningham said.

"Basically I just started from the beginning and the people that were still alive had bodies on top if them, which probably protected them and kept them alive.

"We had to lift dead bodies off them before we could get to the living."

A sluice of refuse, blood and oil from the temple made work difficult as it turned the floor into a slippery mess.

The injuries were horrific and Mr Cunningham's medical supplies quickly ran short, although in Thailand, where most medics are volunteers, the accepted practice is to pick up the injured and take them to hospital fast.

After treating the wounded he then found a bag.

The area was cordoned off and the bomb disposal people went in but Mr Cunningham was unsure if they found an explosive.

He returned to the scene yesterday and saw people paying their respects.

Meanwhile, he's trying to forget the experience.