Three small bombs wounded eight people in Thailand's largely Muslim south today ahead of a three-day visit by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who said he expected more violence during his trip to the restive region.
Six people were wounded by a bomb that went off near a branch of state-owned Krung Thai Bank in the Ra-ngae district of Narathiwat province and a second exploded in a rubber plantation in nearby Ruesoh district, but injured no one.
A third, believed to be detonated by mobile phone, exploded at a university in nearby Yala province, severely wounding one Buddhist lecturer and a female Muslim student, police said. A fourth was defused by police bomb experts.
"There will be more blasts during my visit," Mr Thaksin told reporters in Bangkok, adding that he was unafraid. "We have one birth and one death, so just live with it," he said ahead of a visit to the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala near the Malaysian border where more than 500 people have been killed since violence erupted in January last year.