A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailand’s southern Yala province on Monday, killing three people and wounding 22, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) said, the first such attack in the region in months, Reuters reports.
The mostly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in Thailand’s far south are home to a long-running insurgency by ethnic Malay Muslims fighting for autonomy in which more than 6,000 people have been killed since 2004.
“The criminals put a bomb in a motorcycle and placed it next to a market cart. The force of the explosion caused three people to lose their lives,” said ISOC spokesman Pramote Prom-in. The ISOC is a government security force that operates in the region.
No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack on Monday, which took place at a morning market.
Police said the motorcycle was placed near a stall selling pork.
The stall’s female owner and a male customer were among the three people killed, police said. The bomb blew off chunks of the market’s corrugated tin roof and wrecked nearby stalls.