Thai authorities blamed a local insurgent group for coordinated bomb attacks that killed 14 people and injured 509 in two southern provinces yesterday.
Two car bombs exploded in the southernmost province of Yala, killing 11 people and injuring 101. A separate blast in Hat Yai, the southern region's biggest city, killed three and wounded 408.
"We have more details now and know which group is behind the events," Thailand's prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters in Bangkok today, without identifying the attackers. "I have ordered police to tighten security in public areas."
Separatists in Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and Songkhla have fought for an independent state since Thailand formally annexed the autonomous Malay-Muslim sultanate in 1902.
Attacks escalated in 2004, when the government imposed martial law in three of the southern provinces after schools were torched and weapons stolen from a military base. The insurgency has stifled investment in the south, where 14 provinces account for 80 per cent of Thailand's rubber production.
"We are quite sure that the bombs in Yala and Hat Yai may be related because the devices they used were similar," police chief Priewphan Damaphong said on the TNN Television network, adding that three suspects have been identified.
National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri initially said the blast in Hat Yai was caused by an explosion of gas used for a restaurant.
Bloomberg