Attack on Thai school kills three

Thai soldiers inspect the charred ruins of the school Enlarge Image

At least three teenage students have been killed in an attack on an Islamic school in southern Thailand, police have said.

They said explosives had been thrown into the school in Songkhla province before the assailants opened fire on the sleeping quarters.

Seven other students were wounded in the attack late on Saturday, which the police blamed on Muslim separatists.

But villagers disputed the police account and later staged a protest.

On Sunday morning, three people were shot dead in separate incidents - although details remain sketchy.

Brutal attacks

Local police chief Thammasak Wasaksiri said he believed Muslim rebels were responsible for Saturday's shooting.

School blast in pictures

"Insurgents always use this trick of attacking Muslim people to instigate villagers and get them to believe that police or soldiers were responsible for the attack," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

Hundreds of angry villagers blocked the road to the school soon after the attack, blaming Thailand's armed forces for the deaths of the students.

It is rare for Islamic schools to be targeted, and the motives behind the attack are not clear, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

He says the villagers' suspicion is understandable, as there are now many semi-official paramilitary units operating in the south with the blessing of the military.

Muslims believe they are behind a number of disappearances and behind some of the violence that has been blamed on the insurgents, our correspondent says.

He adds that attacks in southern Thailand have become increasingly brutal over the past two years.

On Wednesday, nine people were killed in an attack on a minibus travelling from the neighbouring province of Yala to Songkhla. All the victims were Buddhist, police said.

About 2,000 people have died in Thailand's restive south since violence flared up again in January 2004.

In contrast with the rest of Thailand, the south is predominantly Islamic, and most of the people living there have more in common with Malays, who live over the border, than with Buddhist Thais.