Car bombs kill 14 in southern Thailand

YALA: A series of car bombs killed 14 people and injured more than 500 in the deadliest attacks to hit the insurgency-torn far south of Thailand in recent years, officials said Sunday.

In an apparent escalation of their tactics, suspected militants Saturday attacked a hotel in Hat Yai, the largest city in southern Thailand and a popular destination for tourists from neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore.

A car bomb in the basement triggered a fire which spread to a shopping mall within the Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel and killed three people, including a Malaysian tourist, according to the police.

Songkhla provincial governor Grisada Boorach said 416 people were injured, mostly suffering from smoke inhalation, and 140 were still in hospital Sunday.

Until now Hat Yai and Songkhla province have been relatively untouched by the shadowy insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives in the neighbouring provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat since 2004.

"There is no hint why they did this at this time," Hat Yai police chief Colonel Khomgrit Srisong said by telephone. "We're questioning witnesses and the injured for more information."

The hotel bombing came about an hour after two car bombs minutes apart hit the town of Yala around midday as people were out shopping.

"Right now we know in Yala there are 11 people dead," a PR officer at the health ministry said.

Colonel Pramote Promin, spokesman for the southern army region, earlier gave a toll of 10 dead and 117 wounded.

National police chief General Priewpan Damapong said the hotel bombing was linked to the Yala attack.

"It was a car bomb and it's related to the incident in Yala and I believe that it was the work of the same group," he said in televised remarks.

Colonel Pramote also said the attacks seemed similar. (AFP)