Two civilians were slightly injured and a temporary base of a special action force was damaged in a car bomb explosion in Su-ngai Kolok municipality in Narathiwat province Sunday morning.
None of the security officers at the temporary base which is next to the Ban Su-ngai Kolok school were injured. But the two injured civilians – Mr Chaiwit Areekulchai who sustained minor injury from a bomb shrapnel and Mr Zakirin Musor who suffered chest pain from the force of the explosion – were rushed to the district hospital for medical treatment.
Several fire trucks were rushed to the scene to extinguish a burning Mitsubishi pickup which was suspected to be used as a car bomb. About ten trader’s stalls were damaged.
Police later said that a man was seen driving the pickup truck which stopped near the temporary base, disembarked the vehicle and was picked up by a motorcyclist. At the time, four police patrolmen, riding in two motorcycles cam across the two men and asked why they stopped the vehicle at the spot.
The two men who were suspected to be militants then sped away quickly prompting the four patrolmen to give chase but failed to catch up with them.
About three minutes afterward, the parked pickup truck exploded.
