NARATHIWAT -- Six defence volunteers had a narrow escape when a buried bomb was detonated as they passed a pile of dirt on a road in Sungai Kolok Municipality on Monday morning.
Pol Col Kong-at Suwankham, the Sungai Kolok police chief, said the six volunteers were patrolling on three motorcyles along Charusathian road near Toluebe village.
The bomb was remotely detonated by an insurgent hiding nearby.
The explosion left a hole about 30 centimetres deep and 60cm across in the dirt pile, but the members of the patrol were unhurt.
Explosive ordnance disposal police sent to the scene said the bomb was in a steel box and weighed five to seven kilogrammes.
Elsewhere in Narathiwat, Pol Col Adulyaman Yaena, the Yingo district police chief, said two signboards showing village names on Phetkasem highway near Ban Yingo and Ban Lubo Buesa had been spray-painted in red with the word "referendum", which then had a red cross painted over it.
The word "referendum" with a cross over it in red was also found on the road near the two village signboards.
Pol Col Adulyaman Yaena said he believed they were all painted by the same person, hoping to fuel dissent ahead of Sunday's charter referendum.
