JavaScript is off. Please enable to view full site.

Over 20 wounded in car bomb in Thai south

Over 20 wounded in car bomb in Thai south

Sunday, December 22, 2013, 23:13 GMT+7

BANGKOK – More than twenty people were wounded – four seriously – when a car bomb went off near a hotel in the far south of Thailand, a local governor said Sunday.

The blast occurred in front of a hotel in the Sadao district of Songkhla province, an area rarely targeted by insurgents fighting for a level of autonomy for Thailand's southernmost provinces which have a Malay Muslim majority.

Television footage showed a smoke-choked road and charred cars outside the hotel.

Two other bombs attached to parked motorcycles struck a police checkpoint and a police station elsewhere in the province without causing injury, according to Songkhla governor Kritsada Boonrat.

"Something like this has never happened in Sadao district before... this area is a border trade area (with Malaysia)," Kritsada said, adding security will be stepped up.

He said police were checking CCTV footage and forensic teams were investigating the three bomb sites, but did not say who he believed was responsible.

The southernmost provinces are in the grip of a near-decade-long insurgency which has cost thousands of lives – the majority of them civilians.

The violence occurs on a near-daily basis in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, and occasionally extends to several districts in Songkhla.

Tentative peace talks between the Thai state and representatives of the major rebel group have stalled.

Another round of talks scheduled for December has been postponed as the crisis-hit Thai government handles massive street protests in Bangkok aimed at toppling Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

National Security Council chief Paradorn Pattanatabut told AFP the culprits may have been linked to the Thai rebellion in the south, and could have been expressing anger that peace talks have faltered while the government concentrates on political turmoil in Bangkok.

"A second theory is it was related to the domestic political situation – to discredit the government," he added.

Sources close to the talks have raised doubt over whether the peace talks will continue given the political unrest in Bangkok.

AFP

More

Read more

;

Photos

VIDEOS

‘Taste of Australia’ gala dinner held in Ho Chi Minh City after 2-year hiatus

Taste of Australia Gala Reception has returned to the Park Hyatt Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Vietnamese woman gives unconditional love to hundreds of adopted children

Despite her own immense hardship, she has taken in and cared for hundreds of orphans over the past three decades.

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta celebrates spring with ‘hat boi’ performances

The art form is so popular that it attracts people from all ages in the Mekong Delta

Vietnamese youngster travels back in time with clay miniatures

Each work is a scene caught by Dung and kept in his memories through his journeys across Vietnam

Latest news