Police said that after the ballot closed down at 3pm, officials gathered the ballots and transferred them on to the truck to send to Rusoh District office.

While being on the way, a bomb concealed on the roadside exploded and injured election staff and security officials, including a headmaster of Ban Yuegaebaru school.

All of which were sent to a local hospital for further medical treatment.

Police said without giving further elaboration that the attacks damaged the voting ballots.

Earlier today suspected Muslim militants ambushed election officials on Wednesday in Narathiwat, killing a policeman and injuring six other people in two separate attacks.

The attacks that came just hours before the senatorial election started at 8am delayed the opening of the two polling stations in Srisakorn district.

The two groups of officials were on their way to polling stations when the suspected militants detonated a small explosive and then open fired onto the officials.

In one attack, Pol Sgt Sakchai Innoi, was killed and three village headmen assigned to the election committee and three policemen deployed to guard them were injured.

The incident came one day after a group of militants ambushed a security team assigned to proect a polling station in Narathiwat's Joh I Rong district.

Armed with AK-47 and M-16 assault rifles, the attackers opened fire from a forested areas where they were hiding, pinning down the security team for several minutes.

Police said the fighting continue even after a 30-member reinforcement team arrived on the scene to help. Joh I Rong Police Superintendent Colonel Thanong-sak Wangsupha said nobody was injured.

The Nation