A four-year-old boy was left crying beside his parents' bodies on a road after they were murdered by a motorcycle gunman in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat on Tuesday afternoon, police said.
They slain couple were identified as Chuay Dermmuak, 52, and his wife, Prapa Sanguanphan, 43, residents of Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district. Both were Buddhists.
Pol Col Prayong Khotesakha, chief of Tak Bai police station, said the shooting occurred on the Tak Bai-Sungai Kolok road at Ban Khok Buema in tambon Kosit.
According to witnesses, Chuay, his wife and their four-year-old son were travelling along the road on a motorcycle when two men on another motorcycle called on them to pull over, pretending to ask for directions to some place.
The man riding pillion then produced a pistol and fired four shots at them at close range.
The couple died on the spot .The gunman got of the bike, collected the spent cartridges and fled on the victims’ motorcycle, leaving the young boy sitting, crying near his parents' bodies.
Police blamed separatist militants.