NARATHIWAT - A explosive ordnance disposal team defused a 20kg home-made bomb hidden near a road in Sukhirin district of this southern province on Monday afternoon.
A team from the 11th Ranger Regiment, led by Lt Kittisak Yaemsawai, stumbled across the bomb about 4pm while patrolling the Sukhirin-Chanae Road.
The improvised bomb was inside a refrigerant cylinder. It weighed about 20 kilogrammes and was concealed near a tree about 200 metres away from the road.
A bomb disposal team from the 446 Border Patrol Unit based in Waeng district was called in to defuse the explosive device, which was fitted with an electrical circuit.
They dismantled it and handed the components over to forensic officers in Narathiwat to examine for fingerprints and any DNA left on the bomb, to match them with those on criminal files.
Pol Col Chaiwat Parnboonthong, Sukhirin police chief, said the bomb was believed to have been stored near the road by insurgents in preparation for being used in an ambush of security units using the road.
In finding it, the patrolling rangers helped avert a tragedy, Pol Col Chaiwat said.