March 16, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1429

PATTANI (Thailand), March 15: A powerful car bomb exploded at a hotel car park on Saturday, killing at least one person and injuring 13 others in Thailand’s restive Muslim-majority south, an army spokesman and hospital official said.

The bomb went off in the evening at the car park adjacent to CS Pattani Hotel in Pattani, one of three insurgency-torn provinces bordering Malaysia.

Pornjit Prapinvanich, director of Pattani hospital, told the Nation TV channel that one person was killed and 13 others were wounded. Of the 13, 10 patients were already discharged, Pornjit said.

Army Colonel Acra Tiproch said earlier that one man was killed and 10 others were injured. He did not give further details.

Thai News Agency said the victim was a hotel security guard and at least 15 people were injured in the car bomb attack.

A witness said that many glass windows at the hotel were shattered. The hotel is one of a few luxury inns in the restive south and is frequently used by government officials.

Earlier, a man was killed when explosives inside his car went off in Yala, police said, adding the victim might be a militant who was about to carry out attacks.

His body was found near the burned vehicle in Yala, another insurgency-torn southern province bordering Malaysia, police said.

More than 2,900 people have been killed since separatist violence erupted in the south in early 2004.

The region was once an autonomous Malay sultanate, but was annexed by Buddhist Thailand a century ago.—AFP