Southern insurgents fired on a train, wounding two children and another passenger in the deep South, forcing the State Railway of Thailand to suspend all service to the restive region indefinitely. Officials said they have halted services south of Yala, because the three passengers were hit and wounded by gunfire from the Islamist extremists. The temporary measure means until further notice the 14 passenger trains to Narathiwat will now stop in Yala, the adjoining province to the north.
Railway authorities stopped the services south of Yala town after gunmen attacked a train travelling from near the Malaysian border to Nakhon Si Thammarat in the central South. Yala town is in the north of Yala province, meaning all rail services in the south of Yala and neighbouring Narathiwat have been suspended.
"We stopped services in the far south for security reasons after our train was attacked by gunfire," a railway official told the French news agency AFP. He said authorities would not resume the service until the security situation had improved. |