A bomb went off in Narathiwat province on Wednesday morning, injuring two soldiers and one civilian, police said.
A bomb blast that hit a local train in Rueso district of Narathiwat province on Nov 18, 2012. (Photo by Waedao Harai)
Police, a bomb squad and a forensic team rushed to the scene after receiving a report of the explosion in Narathiwat's Rueso district.
They found a 12-inch deep and six-foot wide crater on the side of a local road.
Police said the bomb used in the attack was 10 kilogrammes of explosive packed inside a metal box and presumably detonated by a cell phone.
The bomb was triggered as a team of soldiers approached the scene.
Two soldiers, private Anant Maijui and private Suwathachai Karntarng, caught some shrapnel on their faces and limbs. A civilian, Tuwayako Meuda, 53, was also hurt in the blast. None were in critical condition and were taken to a hospital.
The soldiers were part of an 11-man patrol and teacher protection unit.
Police blamed militants.
The attack follows the fatal bombing of a train in Rueso on Sunday, which caused the cancellation of services on the Yala-Sungai Kolok line.
When the service resumed on Wednesday morning a large number of people were at the Yala station to catch the train from Yala province to Sugnai Kolok district in Narathiwat.
Security was tight at the station.
On Sunday, three defence volunteers were killed and 36 people -- passengers and train staff -- were wounded, many seriously, when a bomb buried under the track exploded as a train passed over it in Rueso district in Narathiwat province.
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.