NARATHIWAT - Black-clad insurgents spread chaos in Sungai Kolok border city on Saturday night, throwing bombs and shooting at the district office, killing two defence volunteers, wounding 11 others and detonating explosives beside a railway track and outside a mall.
A security patrol was also attacked in adjoining Pattani province, leaving one ranger dead and wounding two local officials.
Security officials have placed Narathiwat province on high alert for more violence.
A pickup fully loaded with armed men wearing black Islamic Dawah clothing stopped outside the Sungai Kolok district office at 7.10pm.
The attackers dismounted, threw bombs at the office building and sprayed bullets at security volunteers on duty, and then sped off in the same vehicle they arrived in. They also detonated explosives hidden in a car and a motorcycle parked outside the district office compound.
The Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) southern frontline office said several suspicious objects believed to be explosives were dropped on the road behind the vehicle as it fled, deterring pursuit.
Security camera recordings showed a small number of people who were sitting outside or walking near the district office running for their lives amid the sound of gunfire and explosions.
Isoc said two defence volunteers were killed and at least 11 other people injured, three of them civilians. (continues below)
Attackers open fire outside the Sungai Kolok district office. (Photo: CCTV footage via PR Narawthiwat Facebook account)
A short time later, also in Sungai Kolok city, a bomb went off at 7.28pm on a road near the southern railway tracks and another detonated outside a Big C retail mall two minutes later.
Isoc did not provide other details of any of the bombs.
Residents of Narathiwat were strongly advised to stay home for the rest of the night in warnings issued by officials.
The Public Relations Office in Narathiwat on Sunday called for urgent blood donations for those wounded during the shock attacks. Donors could go to Sungai Kolok Hospital, it said.
Roads leading to the district office and in the other two areas bombed in Sungai Kolok district were still closed on Sunday for security reasons.
Elsewhere in Narathiwat, a bomb damaged paired electricity poles in Sungai Padi district at 7.52pm and another bomb was found but did not detonate at a power pole at Ban Tahi Badoh in Waeng district about 3am on Sunday.
No injuries were reported in the two incidents.
Fourth Army commander Lt Gen Paisan Noosang ordered all security units to hunt down those responsible and raised the security alert level throughout the province, especially in Sungai Kolok and Sungai Padi, Isoc said on Sunday.
Authorities were instructed to return the situation to normal as soon as possible.
There was another attack in neighbouring Pattani province, at Ban Hutaekorlae in Sai Buri district, on Saturday night.
Assailants opened fire on a patrol of rangers and local officials on a local road. There were no injuries in the initial attack, but as they continued to patrol the road a bomb exploded, killing one ranger and injuring two assistant village chiefs.
The attacks all occurred during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and followed a visit by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala on Feb 23, when he said he expected progress in continuing efforts to bring an end to southern unrest.
It was Thaksin's first visit to the troubled region in almost two decades, and made as an adviser on Asean affairs to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year.
