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YALA: Seven people were killed and dozens wounded in three bomb attacks Saturday in the main town in Thailand's insurgency-hit far south, the military said.
The blasts hit the centre of Yala around midday just minutes apart.
“Seven people are confirmed dead, more than 70 others were wounded in the Yala bomb blasts,” Colonel Pramote Promin, spokesman for the southern army region, told AFP.
“There were three bombs that exploded, the first is a car bomb and the second and third bombs were hidden in motorcycles,” the colonel said.
Several shop houses near the blast sites were on fire and many parked cars and motorcycles were damaged by the powerful explosions.
A Yala city policeman said more than 50 wounded had been taken to hospital.
“The bombs went off about 10 minutes apart,” he said.
Pramote said another bomb attack had occurred in Mae Lan district of neighbouring Pattani province but he had no immediate details of casualties.
A complex insurgency, without clearly stated aims, has plagued Thailand's far south near the border with Malaysia since 2004, claiming thousands of lives, both Buddhist and Muslim, with near-daily bomb or gun attacks.
People in the region complain of a long history of discrimination against ethnic Malay Muslims by authorities in the Buddhist-majority nation, including alleged abuses by the armed forces, which have a heavy presence.
