NARATHIWAT: A police officer was severely wounded and a passing civilian killed in an ambush in Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok district on Monday night.
Concealed gunmen opened fire from the roadside as the officer rode past on his motorcycle in tambon Pasemat around 9.55pm. Another man riding by at the same time was shot and killed.
The ambush was set near the entrance to a police outpost at Ban Kawa Lorseera.
Pol Sgt Muhammad Faisal Mayakor, 29, was shot in the left leg and fell from his bike. He also suffered broken bones and abrasions.
Muhadmah Fa-is Jaekor, 23, was hit in the stomach and died shortly afterwards in hospital, Thai media reported.
Police, soldiers and a bomb disposal team inspected the scene Tuesday. They found nine spent M16 cartridges.
Pol Col Supakorn Puengrot, head of Sungai Kolok police, blamed the attack on insurgents and said it was well planned. There were two teams -- one fired the shots and the other scattered nail spikes on the road to deter pursuit.
Pol Sgt Muhummad Faisal had just left the outpost and was heading to downtown Sungai Kolok when he was attacked.
Mr Muhadmah Fa-is, a cook, was returning home in the opposite direction and was caught in the gunfire, Pol Col Supakorn said.
Meanwhile, an Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 spokesman, Pramote Prom-in, said a probe into a car bombing in Songkhla on Jan 8 had been expanded and that Zakariya Samae, a religious teacher and former suspect who had been released, was in custody again.
He has been taken from Songkhla's Saba Yoi district to an interrogation centre in Pattani.
Mr Zakariya recently confessed to taking part in the incident and another bombing in Hat Yai in 2014, Col Pramote said, adding that officers were not persecuting a religious teacher.