Australian hurt in Thai bombing

Mr Blenkinsop was covering another attack when he was injured

An Australian photographer has become the first foreign journalist to be injured while covering the insurgency in southern Thailand.

Philip Blenkinsop and three local policemen were wounded by a bomb attack blamed on Muslim insurgents.

The bomb exploded while the police team was inspecting the body of a Buddhist man who had earlier been shot dead.

About 2,200 people have died in southern Thailand since a resurgence of unrest began in January 2004.

There are almost daily bombings and shooting attacks targeting representatives of the Thai authorities - police, soldiers, teachers and increasingly ordinary civilians.

Most attacks are blamed on Muslim insurgents, as part of a separatist campaign.

Nail bomb

Police believe the attackers had deliberately set a trap for the authorities.

Security officials rushed to the scene of the Buddhist man's death after they received an emergency call about the body.

Mr Blenkinsop also went to the scene to cover the incident.

"I was about 4m (12 feet) away from the body where the bomb was hidden. I am very lucky that the bomb didn't have too many sharp nails in it," Mr Blenkinsop told reporters from his hospital bed.

"I pity the man who was shot in the head," he said.

The photographer, who has been based in Bangkok since the mid-1980s, is being treated for minor wounds.