Car bomb hits Thailand’s troubled south, injures 51
A PATTANI, Thailand: More than 50 people including children were injured on Tuesday when a car bomb exploded outside a supermarket in Thailand’s insurgencyplagued south, police said, the largest attack for months on a civilian target there.
The Muslim-majority border region has seethed with violence for over a decade as ethnic Malay insurgents battle the Buddhistmajority state for more autonomy.
The latest attack hit the town of Pattani around 2pm with two bombs going off outside the Big C, a busy supermarket near the town center.
The first device was packed inside a motorcycle in the car park, officers said, spreading panic among shoppers.
“The second blast was a car bomb,” Pattani police commander Major Gen. Thanongsak Wangsupa said.
Deputy national police spokesman Krissana Pattanacharoen told reporters 51 people were injured by the blasts, four of them seriously.
Video posted by a witness on Twitter showed the second blast detonate in a large fireball, sending bystanders running for cover.
Police were on the scene and appeared to be encouraging people to move back when the second blast struck.
In heavy rain, forensic officers started searching through the twisted remains of the car looking for clues, an AFP photographer said.
A large swathe of the supermarket storefront had been blown away, replaced by a twisted mess of charred metal.
“I heard a very loud explosion,” a resident who lives close to the supermarket said, requesting anonymity.