NARATHIWAT - Eight people, including two senior officials, were injured when a motorcycle bomb went off as their vehicle went passed on a local road in Si Sakhon district around noon on Wednesday.
The attack occurred on the road where Si Sa Khon district’s defence volunteer outpost at Sakor village is located, said Pol Capt Preecha Ratchayotha, investigation chief at Si Sakhon district police station.
The armoured pickup truck was carrying Si Sakhon district chief Kotchakorn Raksasorn, his assistant and five defence volunteers to the district office when a bomb, hidden in a motorcycle parked alongside the road, exploded about 12.10pm.
The explosion damaged the armoured vehicle and a passing motorcycle. Mr Kotchakorn and the six others in the vehicle and a local resident on the bike sustained wounds. The blast also shattered glass windows and the roof and walls of a nearby house.
Pol Col Suthon Sukwiset, chief of Si Sakhon district police, led a team of police, soldiers and bomb disposal officers to the scene.
Pieces of the motorcycle used by the bomber were left scattered over the road. The bike had a Narathiwat licence plate and was reported stolen two years ago.
The registered owner Sunit Thenmuk, filed his complaint with Rueso police on June 12, 2014.
Bomb disposal officers said the explosive was inside a 10kg cooking gas cylinder and was detonated by radio.
All the injured people were rushed to a nearby hospital. They are Mr Kotchakorn, 52; assistant district chief Waesama-ae Jaeha, 42; defence volunteers Atsaha Dueramae, 28; Kahim Wadeng, 30; Manusee Sama 30; Suwat Srisuwan, 53; Royalee Salae, 51; and local resident Arnat Noithaptim, 38.
Police said the bomb exploded shortly after Mr Kotchakorn and his team left the defence volunteer outpost, where he held a monthly meeting with local leaders.
Authorities blamed insurgents for the attack, which they believed was intended to unsettle people ahead of Sunday's referendum on the draft charter.
The bomb explosion shattered this armoured pickup carrying two senior officials and five defence volunteers in Narathiwat's Si Sakhon district on Wednesday. They were all wounded, but survived. (Photo by Waedao Harai)
