NARATHIWAT (Thailand): Five people, including two teenagers and a monk, were killed on Sunday in separate shootings and a suspicious fire at a Buddhist temple in Thailand’s restive south, police said.

In the latest attacks, two Buddhist men were shot dead around 2:00pm in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province while riding their motorcycle, police said.

“Santi Puiprom, 40, was shot in the head and body and died immediately, while Suthep Sanad, 54, was shot in the head and died on way to the hospital,” Tak Bai district police lieutenant Supachoke Wiwattanasin told AFP.

“Police believe this must have been done by the insurgents.”

Earlier on Sunday, two teenagers and a monk were killed at a temple in Pattani province’s Panarae district that police believe was deliberately torched by suspected Muslim separatists.

The boys appeared to have been shot before the attack, while the monk died after being slashed on the neck at the Promprasith temple, police said.

“About 20 men invaded Wat Promprasith in the early morning around 2:15 am and set fire to the temple and the two monks’ dwellings,” district police captain Kittipat Sangwisuth told AFP.

“We found the bodies of two men who were burned in the fire, Harnnarong Kam-Ong, 17, and Sathaporn Suwannarat, 15, and assume that they were shot to death before the fire.

“We also found the body of a monk, Kaew Panjapetchkaew, 76, who had cuts around his neck.”

No details about the damage caused by the fire were immediately available.

Thai army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin was due to visit the temple on Sunday to meet with temple leaders, an army spokesman said.

Separately, southern army commander Lieutenant General Kwanchart Klaharn told a news conference on Sunday authorities would release four of 16 people arrested in connection with the deaths of two Thai marines last month.

The marines were held hostage for 18 hours in a Narathiwat village, where 2,000 villagers had stopped security forces from rescuing them, before being beaten to death in an attack that shocked the nation.—AFP