SONGKHLA, Jan 8 (TNA) – A pickup truck that carried
50-kilogram bombs exploded near the Huay Pling police station and a border
patrol police unit in Tha Muang sub-district of Thepha district in the southern
province of Songkhla Tuesday morning.
The truck belonged to a retired teacher who was hanged last
night.
The explosion was heard from a distance of about 10
kilometers. Shrapnel was thrown in a radius of 300 meters. It destroyed
transformers and caused a widespread blackout.
The security officials cordoned off the blast site. Bomb
experts spent about four hours examining it and later said the bombs were
placed in two 15-kg cooking gas cylinders which also contained chopped steel
rods.
The explosion injured Pol Lt Somnuek Kaewmoon and Pol Capt
Sineenat Kongphut. They were sent to Thepha Hospital and later referred to Yala
Hospital.
Col Pramot Prom-in, spokesman of the Internal Security
Operations Command’s southern office, said the cylinders were placed on the
Isuzu pickup truck stolen last night from retired teacher Amata Samothanthawee,
62.
He was hanged in Saba Yoi district. Relatives had been able
to contact him last night and officials assumed the murder took place at about
9pm, Col Pramote said.
He blamed the attack on a local insurgency group led by
Bookoree Lamso.(TNA)
