BANGKOK, May 5 (Reuters) - A small bomb exploded near a royal palace in the Thai capital Bangkok on Saturday, lightly wounding one person as the country celebrated the anniversary of the coronation of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The bomb shattered a telephone booth outside the Chitrlada Palace, the Bangkok residence of Thailand's revered king who has been on the throne for 60 years, the world's longest reigning monarch.

It was not known if King Bhumibol, who turns 80 this year, was in the palace.

"It was intended to make a loud noise and cause chaos. It was not aimed to destroy life," Police Lieutenant General Adisorn Nonsi told TiTV television.

A young man in his 20s was slightly wounded and being questioned by police, TiTV said.

Thai authorities have not found the culprits behind a series of New Year's Eve bombs in Bangkok that killed three people and wounded 38.

In the immediate aftermath of those blasts, the military suggested that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup last September, or his loyalists were behind the bombs. Thaksin denied any links to the blasts.

Investigators later suggested Muslim militants waging a three-year separatist insurgency in the deep south may have had a role in the Bangkok attacks.

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