Four rangers were killed, five were injured and one civilian wounded when a bomb went off on a road in Pattani's Sai Buri district yesterday morning, authorities said.
The explosive device was buried beneath the road in tambon Taping where construction work was under way and detonated when a pickup truck carrying a nine-member patrol unit attached to Task Force 44 drove over it.
The force of the explosion tore the vehicle in two, killing four rangers and injuring five others and another civilian who was following the pickup.
Police said the pickup truck was carrying nine rangers, including patrol leader Sgt Thirayuth Pankaew as it approached the construction site.
Four men on the back of the pickup got off and walked either side of the vehicle as it was forced to slow down by the construction work. The bomb went off as the vehicle passed slowly over it.
photo: ROYAL THAI POLICE
Four of the five rangers in the pickup were killed in the blast. They were identified as Suwit Boonchu, Natthaphol Rangsimantuchart, Pathomporn Khongsai and Pitakkhomsit Sakwisetsom.
The injured rangers were Sgt Thirayuth, Jakkrit Jee-aey, Thanya Uafapraiwan, Prayat Inkaew, and Ekkachai Khamkwaen. Three of them were in critical condition. The injured civilian was a woman identified as Romueroh Seuree.
Police said the bomb was a gas cylinder packed with up to 80 kilogrammes of explosive and sharp objects.
The bomb was thought to have been detonated by a radio signal.
A forensic team collected debris including a damaged circuit and batteries for examination.
According to a security source, there were intelligence reports about a possible bomb attack in Sai Buri district and a joint search was under way for potential suspects behind the blast.
Meanwhile, security authorities are investigating a mobile phone theft case in Nakhon Si Thammarat where a 19-year-old man broke into a shop and stole 103 mobile phones worth 1 million baht among other items.
Authorities said they are looking for links between the suspect and insurgent groups in the deep South that use mobile phones in bomb attacks.
The theft case involves Jehisama-ae Hama, a native of Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok, who was recently arrested at a shop in Bangkok where he was allegedly selling stolen items.
Police said Mr Jehisama-ae told them he was part of a team and his job was to break into the store with another man and steal the phones. The others scouted the shop before he and his partner hit.
The army and the 4th Army Region yesterday expressed condolences to the families of the victims of the bomb attack and ordered authorities concerned to speed up the investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Col Pramote Promin, spokesman of the Internal Security Operations Command's Region 4, said security officials were instructed to beef up security.
