Five soldiers were injured when a 15-kilogram roadside bomb overturned their Humvee early yesterday in Narathiwat's Sungai Padi district. The troops were conducting a routine patrol when they came under the bomb attack, which investigators believe was set off remotely by mobile phone.

The powerful explosion left a three-metre deep and four-metre wide hole and sent shrapnel as far as 30 metres from the spot where the bomb was detonated.

One of the soldiers later died from excessive bleeding on his way to a local hospital.

In nearby Pattani province, a man was killed by suspected militants who shot him in the head shortly after he dropped off a group of children at school, police said.

Late on Wednesday in Narathiwat, one man was killed and two people injured when militants opened fire on a grocery store. Police believe the shooting was meant to lure them to the shop, where the militants had hidden a 10-kilogram bomb. They found the bomb after the body was taken out of the store, but defused it before it exploded.