YALA (Thailand): At least nine people were killed in a brutal killing spree across Thailand’s south, police said on Thursday. Of the victims, two were elderly men, who were beheaded and then set ablaze.

Five people, on of them a soldier, were killed in drive-by shootings in Narathiwat province, highlighting a surge in violence blamed on separatist militants, police said.

In the most gruesome attack, militants beheaded two elderly Buddhist men in their homes in nearby Pattani province and then set the houses on fire, police said. The charred remains of the bodies were found on Thursday.

Two Buddhist health workers were gunned down in a clinic in Pattani late on Wednesday, when militants stormed into the building and shot them at their desks, police said.

Authorities shut down 15 nearby clinics and could not say when they would reopen. Rebels torched two schools in Pattani.The attacks came as authorities stepped up a crackdown on the militants with more than 200 people being held, mostly without charge, at army bases around the region.—AFP