Three defence volunteers were killed and 35 people including passengers and train staff were wounded, many seriously, in a bomb explosion that hit a local train in Rueso district in Narathiwat province on Sunday morning.
Pol Lt-Col Jakrit Wongprommet, deputy chief of Rueso police station, said the incident occurred at about 7.30am when a bomb planted on the railway track at the Bukit Yure station near Ban Salo in Rueso district was detonated while the Yala-Sungai Kolok train No 453 stopped at the station.
After the bomb, which was made of a gas cylinder and weighed about 100kg, exploded, militants hiding nearby opened fire at the station.
The huge explosion badly damaged the train's passenger cars. The dead defence volunteers were identified as Prasarn Chatree, Panakorn Choonkaew and Sooksawat Raungnam.
The wounded included one railway police officer and two train ticket inspectors.
The rest of the wounded were passengers. Four or five of them had their legs or arms severed by shrapnel.
All of the wounded were rushed to Rueso Hospital.
The explosion left a hole about 3 metres in diametre and 2 metres deep in the rail track. Two passenger cars were derailed.
Train services on the route were suspended.
State Railway of Thailand governor Prapat Chongsa-nguan said he would travel down South on Sunday to inspect the damage.
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Photos by Waedao Harai
In Narathiwat's Rangae district, a woman was killed and her son seriously wounded in a gun attack on Sunday morning.
The incident occurred at about 8am on a road near Ban Luk Khao in tambon Tanyong Limo in Rangae district.
Police said Halimo Royi, 53, and her son Abdulloh, 25, were returning home from work at a rubber plantation at Ban Lubo Diyae on a motorcycle. Two men followed them on another motorcycle and the pillion rider opened fire at them with an AK47 rifle.
Both Halimo and Abdulloh were hit in the body. The mother was killed instantly while her son was seriously wounded.
Police recovered more than 10 AK47 cartridges at the scene.
In Yala province on Sunday morning, about 300 people, including civilians, religious leaders, government officials, police and soldiers, took part in a religious ceremony, praying for peace and an end to the continuing violence in the deep South.
On Saturday morning, a woman was killed and 33 others injured in a motorcycle bomb attack in Yala's Muang district.
More than 5,000 people have been killed and more than 9,000 hurt in over 11,000 incidents, about 3.5 a day, in Thailand's three southern border provinces and four districts of Songkhla since violence erupted afresh in January 2004, according to Deep South Watch, which monitors the regional violence.
MOPPING UP: Firefighters try to contain a blaze in a commercial building in Yala’s Muang district on Nov 27, 2012. The fire was caused by a bomb placed inside a motorcycle. (Post Photo)