One dead in Thailand bomb blasts

The violence has been blamed on Muslim insurgents

Bomb blasts have killed one person and injured at least 71 in a restive state in southern Thailand, police say.

The explosions struck near a local government office and a teashop in the state of Narathiwat.

Police said suspected separatist insurgents were behind the attacks, but no group has claimed responsibility.

Narathiwat is one of the states worst affected by an insurgency in Thailand's Muslim majority south that has killed more than 3,300 people since 2004.

Motorcycle bomb

A car bomb appeared to target a meeting of village chiefs and local officials at a district government office, close to a fruit market packed with shoppers at the time.

Minutes later, a second bomb hidden in a motorcycle went off outside a nearby teashop.

The commander of the state police force, Lt Gen Surachai Suebsuk, told AFP news agency that a woman who was seriously injured in the explosion - whom he named as Amporn Pui - died later in hospital.

He said initial reports that there had been three blasts were wrong.

Several of those injured are in a serious condition.

Small bomb blasts occur quite frequently in the south, but incidents on this scale are rare, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but police said it was connected to the insurgency.

The explosions came a week after new Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat visited the Muslim-majority southern districts and told reporters that the five-year-long insurgency appeared to have eased.

Thailand's three far southern provinces - Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani - were an ethnic Malay sultanate until mainly Buddhist Thailand annexed the region in 1902.

The vast majority of people there are Muslim and speak a Malay dialect rather than Thai.

Peace efforts

Officials have blamed Muslim insurgents for the violence in recent years, although analysts say criminal gangs seeking ascendancy over lucrative border trades are key players.

Efforts towards a military solution have foundered.

Periodic claims by individuals that a ceasefire has been agreed, or talks on peace begun, have resulted in no discernible improvement in security on the ground.

The violence has ranged from drive-by shootings and bombings, to beheadings.

It appears to target both Buddhists and Muslims associated with the Thai state, such as police, soldiers, teachers and government officials.

It has continued largely unnoticed by the outside world, with individuals shot and killed by unknown assailants.

Reports quoted police saying that a religious teacher was shot dead in Narathiwat province on Monday night, and a man was killed later in a similar attack in nearby Pattani province.

No group has claimed responsibility for the violence.