More than 70 die after Thai riot

At least 78 people have died following a riot in southern Thailand, many of them crushed and suffocated after they were arrested and packed tightly into trucks, doctors said today.

Pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunan said she and a team of doctors conducted autopsies on 78 bodies at an army camp in Pattani province and found that most of the dead had perished from suffocation.

The dead were among some 1,300 people arrested on Monday following a riot in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated southern provinces, which have been struck by unrest this year.