Roadside bomb hits police bus carrying officers in southern Thailand

A roadside bomb hit a police bus and injured officers in southern Thailand.

The improvised explosive device was reportedly planted on a water metre box on a bridge in Pattani province at 3:40pm on September 27.

It was detonated just as a border patrol police bus was returning to Chumphon from a mission in Narathiwat province.

Authorities said four policemen were injured. They were taken to the Yaring Hospital and later transferred to the Songklanagarind Hospital in Songkhla province.

Just a day earlier, another explosion hit a police pickup truck passing through Narathiwat province.

The vehicle carrying eight officers was returning to a police base when a bomb was detonated near a bridge at around 11:20am on September 26.

All eight passengers were injured and rushed to the Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra Hospital.

Officials said both areas have been cordoned off for investigations.

Islamic separatist terror attacks target the three southernmost provinces of Thailand - Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat - next to the border with Mulsim neighbors Malaysia. Thai state employees and infrastructure are often hit while attacks on civilians are rare.

Officials believe the conflict dates to a deal in 1909 that the British Empire struck to incorporate the Muslim region into the Siamese mainland.

The region's culture is more similar to Malaysia and dramatically different to Buddhist Thais causing decades of tension that lead to the emergence of separatist groups fighting for independence in the 1960s.

The struggle has continued ever since with more than 7,344 people killed and 13,641 injured between January 2004 and March 2022.

The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office warns against all but essential travel to the region while Canada's government warns its nationals to 'avoid all travel' to the three provinces.