11 killed, 127 wounded in Thailand's blasts

Thai security personnel investigate the site of a bomb attack in southern Thailand's Yala province March 31, 2012. 11 people died and 127 were injured in a series of bomb explosions on Saturday in Thailand's Muslim south, the latest in a wave of violence blamed on separatists in a region bordering Malaysia, police and officials said. Three bombs went off in the business area of the city of Yala around lunchtime, they said, adding the devices may have been placed in a car and a motorcycle. [Photo/Agencies]

BANGKOK - Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri on Sunday unveiled updated casualties of the southern Yala province's bombs, saying a total of 11 people, six men and five women, were killed and 127 wounded.

Of the total injured, 10 were in serious conditions, most of them from burns and bomb shrapnel, he said.

The three deadly bomb blasts took place at a hotel in a busy area of Yala city Saturday noon. The first batch of explosives which was planted in a parked pickup truck exploded 20 minutes before the second and third bombs hidden in motorcycles were detonated.

It was when onlookers were gathering at the first blast site and the authorities rushing to check the incident that the two later bombs went off.  

Several shop houses near the blast site were on fire and many parked cars and motorcycles were damaged by the powerful explosions.

Since the resurgence of insurgency in January 2004, over 11,000 violent incidents have happened in the southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. Altogether over 5,200 people, mostly villagers, have been killed in violent incidents instigated by suspected secessionists in these Muslim-majority provinces which were once independent sultanate of Pattani before being annexed by predominantly Buddhist state in 1909.

Thai rescue workers extinguish a fire at the site of a bomb blast in southern Thailand's Yala province March 31, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]