His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and Her Royal Highness Princess Sirindhorn converse with the parents of teacher Juling Pangamoon, inset, during her funeral service yesterday at Wat Pong Sanuk in Chiang Rai.

Maruding Suni was pronounced dead at hospital while the reporter, Santhiti Koejitmet, suffered injuries to her head, torso and leg form the roadside blast that was detonated just as they walked passed.

The victims were walking with a group of about 50 police and military officers to a kindergarten in Narathiwat's Bajoh district that had been torched on Monday night.

The explosive went off at around 8.20am.

Doctors said X-ray tests showed Santhiti's condition was stable but advised her to remain in hospital for a couple of days.

Investigations at the scene revealed that suspected militants planted a five-kilogram bomb in the middle of the road near the entrance leading to the kindergarten.

Their intention was to kill security officers who would be probing Monday's fire, police said.

Another roadside bombing took place at around noon in the same district.

Militants targeted a patrolling military vehicle but the explosive missed them by about five metres. The bombs were hidden inside a metal box. No injuries were reported.

Roadside bombings, followed by brief gunfights, are an almost daily occurrence in the deep South where nearly 2,000 people have been killed since January 2004.

Authorities blamed a new generation of militants bent on separating the predominantly Malay-speaking region from the Thai state.

In related development, the government yesterday approved a three-month extension of a state of emergency in the Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, along the Malaysian border.

The decree has been in place since last July and has been renewed every three months since.