 A 60-year-old Buddhist man was killed and seven people injured today in a blast at a market, the fourth in less than 24 hours in Thailand's southern provinces. A food seller was killed and three of the injured left in a critical condition from the blast during a busy early morning shopping period in the Than To district of Yala province, police said. The scene of the blast was cordoned off today as forensic teams were brought into investigate, according to police. ''We don't yet know what sort of device was used,'' said a spokesman.| "But apparently, it made a very big 'Boom!' type of sound," he added. |
At least 16 people were injured this evening in the first of three obviously apparently coordinated bomb attacks in the neighbouring province of Narathiwat. All 16 were injured in the first of the blasts when a remote control bomb was triggered in a crowded restaurant. Two other bombs went off within two hours of the first but nobody was injured, according to officials. The bomb blasts came hours after a Buddhist teacher was shot dead and confirmed that there is raised fears of a major surge in violence following the deaths of 87 Muslim protestors on October 25. A police spokesman said the first bomb exploded at 6.20pm in the Ungmor restaurant five minutes after a witness saw two men posing as clients plant it in the restaurant before riding away on a motorbike. "Initially we have 14 people injured from the blast," he said, adding that four victims were in a critical condition. About 40 minutes later, a second device went off in a general store at Tak Bai district. A third device hidden in a drain in the Bacho district of Narathiwat went off at 8.15pm but again nobody was hurt. The bomb attacks followed the slaying earlier in the day of a Buddhist martial arts teacher, who was gunned down while returning to his home from a funeral.
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With attacks continuing almost daily, defence volunteers in three southern villages had started returning guns to authorities saying they feared being targeted by Islamic militants, the Nation newspaper reported Friday. About 4,000 shotguns have been handed out to village officials by the government in a bid to fend of a wave of hit-and-run attacks aimed entirely at infidels mostly at security forces, state officials, Buddhist civilians and monks. |