Explosions kill 4, wound 6 in southern Thailand

Police say two explosions have killed four people and wounded six others at a municipal office in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south.

Police Col. Kampanat Panichprasert said an unknown number of suspected insurgents first opened fire today in front of the Makrud Municipality building in Pattani’s Kok Pho district. The gunfire didn’t hurt anyone. But Kampanat said two timed devices exploded, five minutes apart from each other, after the militants fled on a pickup truck and a motorcycle.

He said the bombings killed three municipality officials and one civilian, and hurt six others, including three rescuers who rushed to the scene. More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since an Islamic insurgency erupted in 2004.