Southern police uninjured as Narathiwat bomb detonates

By Narong Nuansakul

Police patrolling an area in Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district to safeguard teachers narrowly escaped injury on Thursday morning when a roadside bomb exploded near them.

Only the wooden planks of a kerbside stall, which absorbed the force of the blast, prevented serious harm. Ethnic Malay insurgents are suspected of detonating the bomb at 8am on Highway 4084 (Narathiwat-Tak Bai Road) in Tambon Praiwan.Police patrolling an area in Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district to safeguard teachers narrowly escaped injury on Thursday morning when a roadside bomb exploded near them.

Only the wooden planks of a kerbside stall, which absorbed the force of the blast, prevented serious harm. Ethnic Malay insurgents are suspected of detonating the bomb at 8am on Highway 4084 (Narathiwat-Tak Bai Road) in Tambon Praiwan.

Inspecting the scene, Tak Bai deputy inspector Pol Captain Suriya Jomsuriya and his team found a three-inch-deep, 12-inch-wide crater and fragments of a one-kilogram bomb scattered through the damaged stall. Tak Bai Pol Captain Kareeya Teemung was leading a six-strong team by armoured truck and two motorcycles when suspected insurgents in hiding detonated the bomb planted under the stall.