BANGKOK, April 3: Two near-simultaneous bombs exploded on Sunday in southern Thailand, including one at the airport in Hat Yai city killing one person and wounding a dozen, police said. “According to initial reports, one person has died from the bomb at the airport, and about a dozen people were injured,” a police officer said from Hat Yai, restive southern Thailand’s largest city and commercial capital.

“At the same time, a bomb also went off in front of the city’s Carrefour department store,” he said, adding there were injuries reported there but he had few details.

The airport blast occurred at 8:24pm inside the departure terminal, an airport official said.

“There was a bomb in front of the bookstore in the airport, close to the check-in counter,” the official said.

“Many people are injured,” the official added.

Thailand’s Muslim-majority deep south is in the grip of a violent separatist insurgency that has left at least 630 people dead since January 2004.

The explosions come just two days after a team from the world’s largest Islamic group, the Indonesia-based Nahdlatul Ulama, wrapped up a five-day mission to the region aimed at mediating between the government and Muslim militants.

—AFP