| |
BANGKOK : The death toll from a powerful car bomb in Thailand's southern border town of Sungai Kolok rose to six Friday with 44 people confirmed injured, police said a day after the blast.
"One of the injured died this morning at Sungai Kolok hospital," taking the toll from the late Thursday blast to six, a police officer in the town told AFP by telephone.
It was the deadliest single bombing in a campaign of violence that has gripped the Muslim-dominated deep south for the past 13 months and claimed about 600 lives.
Of the injured, 13 remained in hospital, with as many as five in critical condition, while the rest had been treated and released, another policeman said.
All the dead were believed to be Thai, though police said they had officially confirmed the identity of only two victims.
Narathiwat province governor Pracha Taerat said the "unprecedented" bomb was made with about 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives and detonated in a pickup truck parked outside the Marina Hotel in an area crowded with open-air beer bars.
The area was cordoned off after the blast and forensic officers continued Friday to pore over the site to collect evidence, police said.
Sungai Kolok, along the Malaysian border, has a thriving nightlife district routinely visited by scores of Thai and Malaysian tourists. It has been the scene of three other major blasts since March.
- AFP
|
