Bangkok Post

MOPPING UP: Firefighters try to contain a blaze in a commercial building in Yala’s Muang district yesterday morning. The fire was caused by a bomb placed inside a motorcycle.

Police said the bomb, which appeared to target a passing military patrol, detonated in front of a store on Siroros Road.

Security forces rushed to the scene, where they found dozens wounded and a commercial building on fire. It took emergency workers more than an hour to contain the blaze.

The injured were carried out and taken to nearby hospitals.

About 20m from the burning building was the smashed military pickup truck which had been carrying the army patrol. On its hood was a motorcycle with the body of a woman on top of it.

Investigators believed the woman was hit and killed by the truck, which had been thrown across the street by the force of the blast.

Police later identified the dead woman as 49-year-old Pannee Sirinworawet, a Yala native.

The twisted frame of another motorcycle was also found across the street. Police suspect that it came from the motorcycle used in the attack.

It was later learned that the motorcycle was reported stolen two months ago.

Police suspect that the explosion was detonated by radio, based on initial examinations of circuit components recovered from the scene of the blast.

Police said the bomb went off as the patrolling pickup truck was passing by.

Five soldiers in the truck were wounded, with two in a critical condition. Twenty-eight civilians were also hurt, and five commercial buildings and several cars were damaged.

Pol Lt-Gen Paitoon Chuchaiya, chief of the Southern Border Police Operating Centre, said a suspect in the bombing was captured by a nearby closed-circuit TV camera. Police were reviewing the footage to track the suspect down.

Pornsak Leelakriengsak, who runs an automotive parts shop that was damaged in the blast, said he wanted the government to compensate him for the damage as quickly as possible.

"I was almost killed. As soon as the bomb exploded, I ran out of the house through the back door," he said.

Meanwhile, a defence volunteer was shot dead and another injured in Pattani's Kapho district about 5.45pm yesterday. The dead man was identified as Sakipbalaki Dengla, 24, while the injured volunteer was Sauding Jehdo, police said.

After an initial investigation, police said the two were shot by a group of about six men riding in a pickup truck. The pair had been sitting in front of a petrol station in the district when the men shot at them, police said. It was not clear whether the shootings were motivated by personal conflicts or the southern insurgency.