Two-year-old Napaswan Chombodin and eight-year-old Amornthip Dangsrithe died at the Saba Yoi market while two others died later at hospital. At least 10 of 26 people injured were reported to be in serious condition.

Police blamed insurgents in

the Malay-speaking region for the attack. The bomb, hidden on a motorbike, went off at a crowded fresh market at about 3.45pm. Security officers quickly sealed off the area, fearing that a second bomb could be hidden nearby.

The explosion followed seven bombs set off in Hat Yai on Sunday night, injuring at least 13. Four of the 13 victims were discharged yesterday while nine others remained in hospital, Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla said.

Mongkol said two victims re-mained in a critical condition: Suchart Sae-tang, who was in a coma, and Niwat Chuchart, 20, who suffered severe injuries to his internal organs.

Mongkol said Suchart had

serious brain damage but doctors would not operate on him until his condition stabilised.

Niwat underwent five hours of surgery and was given 12 litres of blood after shrapnel pierced his liver, pancreas and intestines.

Mongkol said four other victims were safe and should be released by today. They were Suree Phokharat, 46, Worawit Saengthavee, 14, Eujuang Saetang, 57, and Aksorn Senakho-chawong, 30.

Police chief, General Seripisut Temiyavej, and director-general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Sirichai Chote-rat, said it was too early to come to any conclusion on whether the Hat Yai bombings were definitely the work of militants in the deep South.

Security officials differ in their reading of the Hat Yai blasts. Commander of the Songkhla provincial police force, Maj Gen Paithoon Phattanasophon, said politics may have been behind the seven bombs, while the commissioner of the Ninth Police Region, Lt General Chetanakorn Napee-thapat, dismissed politics as the cause.

"The way they planted the bombs shows the attackers did not mean to kill people but merely wanted to create confusion. The bombs were mostly planted far from where people gathered," Paithoon said.

Political tensions have been brewing since the ouster of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup last September, with some cases of arson and bombings blamed on die-hard followers of the ousted leader.

Meanwhile, in Narathiwat, police are hunting 10 armed insurgents who held four village defence volunteers at gunpoint as they torched an elementary school they were guarding, said Pol Colonel Banlerh Chuwate of Rusoh district.

In Bacho district, Pol Senior Sgt Abdul Parik Saleh, 42, was shot at close range in the chest and head as he stopped at an outdoor market. His wife, who was next to him at the time of attack, said the two gunmen had blended in with the crowd before walking up to him and opening fire.

In Yala, a former community police volunteer in Tambon Lamai, Wicha Tohka, 28, was shot in his right knee and foot. He was returning from a football game on his motorbike when attacked.

The Nation

Songkhla