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Published on December 5, 2007

The bomb was hidden inside a motorbike near the restaurant in Muang district in the evening, when the restaurant was crowded, police said.

The explosion killed two people instantly and four more died later in hospital. Two of the deceased worked at the restaurant. The rest were bystanders and customers who were dining at the time.

Earlier, a local resident was shot dead and two others injured - one of them a security volunteer - in separate gun attacks in Pattani and Yala.

Suthat Chuduang, 60 was shot dead while riding a motorbike with his wife Ubon Chu-duang, who was injured in the attack in Pattani's Mayor district.

Mayor district police chief Pol Col Watcharin Amarapitak said the shooting was similar to many of the violent attacks in the predominantly Muslim region over the past four years, during which more than 2,700 people have been killed.

In neighbouring Yala province, a security volunteer was injured in an ambush during a patrol in Bannang Sata at about 1.30pm yesterday.

Some five militants fired from the roadside at a group of seven volunteers who were in a pickup truck on the patrol. Yongyut Chulat was hit in the stomach but his colleagues were uninjured after a five-minute exchange of fire.

An hour earlier, police arrested a suspect in the office of Yala Provincial Islamic Committee in connection with the murder of two border police officials in September last year. The suspect, Saidee Suseng, denied any involvement.

 The Nation