Nine people were killed and at least 70 injured in a series of bomb attacks in a shopping area in Thailand.
The devices were hidden inside motorcycles and cars and detonated by mobile phones.
Suspected Muslim insurgents are believed to be behind the attacks that occurred as people gathered for lunch at a shopping center in the city of Yala, in the insurgency-plagued south of the country.
The explosions bear the hallmarks of Muslim insurgents.
Governor Dethrat Simsiri said 68 people were injured by three explosions that occurred within 100 meters and just a few minutes apart.
He told Thai television that many of the wounded were hit by the third bomb, hidden in a car, as they gathered at the scene. A total of 23 remained in the hospital, she said.
“We are not sure which group of suspected Muslim insurgents were behind this, but we are investigating,” he said.
The first bomb was hidden inside a motorcycle parked near a shopping area and detonated by a mobile phone around noon, the governor said.
Within minutes, a second bomb hidden in another motorcycle exploded, followed by a third explosion from a device placed in a car that set nearby buildings on fire, he said.
Eight people were killed and at least 70 injured in a series of bomb explosions
Bomb attacks like this are a common tactic of Islamist separatists who have been waging an insurgency in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since early 2004.
Bomb attacks like this are a common tactic of Islamist separatists who have been waging an insurgency in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since early 2004. The conflict has claimed more than 5,000 lives.
Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani are the only Muslim-dominated provinces in a predominantly Buddhist country.
Separately, an explosion occurred at a hotel in the city of Hat Yai in nearby Songkhla province, which officials attributed to a gas leak and said was unrelated to attacks blamed on insurgents.
Several tourists staying at the Lee Gardens hotel, where the explosion took place, suffered smoke inhalation after the midday explosion, which occurred in a Japanese restaurant on the hotel’s ground floor, police said.
Three explosions occurred within a radius of 100 meters and only a few minutes apart.