PATTANI, Thailand: Police say two soldiers were killed and six were wounded in a roadside bombing in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south.

Police Col. Manit Yimsai said on Thursday that suspected insurgents detonated an improvised bomb hidden on the road surface in Pattani province's Panarae district.

The soldiers were in two armored vehicles traveling Wednesday night to inspect damages from an earlier militant attack.

One of the personnel carriers was badly damaged. The attack was one of 36 incidents overnight in Pattani.

Authorities said suspected militants set fires on tires, cell towers, telephone booths, buildings and closed-circuit cameras. No other casualties were reported.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand's three southernmost provinces since an Islamist insurgency erupted in 2004.