A car bomb exploded inside a police compound in southern Thailand on Tuesday, killing at least one person, according to a police official.
“It was a vehicle bomb.” “We are still clearing the area, and the number of injured may rise,” said Lt. Col. Niti Suksan, Narathiwat province’s deputy police commissioner, adding that one police officer was killed.
According to Pornprasit Jantra, director of the Narathiwat Rajanagarindra hospital, at least 29 persons were treated at the hospital for injuries, including police personnel and citizens.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Social media images showed black smoke billowing from a burning car inside a low-rise compound and police diverting traffic away. The images could not be independently verified by Reuters.
The Thai government has been fighting shadowy groups seeking independence for the predominantly Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and parts of Songkhla in southern Thailand along the Malaysian border for decades.
In August, at least 17 locations in southern Thailand were hit by explosions and fires in what appeared to be multiple coordinated attacks, injuring seven people.
According to the Deep South Watch group, which monitors the violence, over 7,300 people have been killed in the conflict since 2004. Peace talks, which began in 2013, have been repeatedly disrupted.
Source: REUTERS
