A policeman was killed and nine other people wounded on Tuesday in a bomb attack in Thailand’s insurgency-hit deep south, officials said, as authorities vowed talks with rebels will continue.
The roadside bomb was detonated by suspected insurgents targeting police who had been called to the scene of a failed ambush on a senior local official in Sungai Padi district, Narathiwat province.
A sergeant died on the way to hospital after the bomb - hidden in a metal box and detonated by mobile phone - exploded, a local police official said.
Three other officers were left in a critical condition, while a civilian was also wounded in the blast, the official added.
Narathiwat is one of several violence-wracked provinces in the Muslim-majority Thai south, where some 5,700 people have been killed since the insurgency flared in 2004.
Rounds of talks in Malaysia between Thai authorities and some rebel groups, including the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), had raised tentative hopes of peace.
But a ceasefire, supposed to last from July 10 to August 18 to mark the Islamic holy month, faltered after a few days, with local observers recording 29 deaths during Ramadan.