Thai market blast kills one, injures seven

One person was killed and seven others injured when suspected insurgents detonated a bomb at a market in Thailand’s violence-prone south today, police said.

The explosive device was hidden in a pot at a riverside market in Narathiwat province’s Takbai district, where an army unit had set up a security checkpoint, Police Colonel Nitinai Langyanai said.

Col Nitinai said four soldiers and four civilians – two men and two women - were injured and taken to hospital. One of the wounded civilians, a 37-year-old boat driver, later died.

Nearly 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since an Islamist insurgency erupted in 2004.

Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani are the only Muslim-dominated provinces in the predominantly Buddhist country.