Blast at Market in Southern Thailand Kills One, Injures at Least 16

The explosion at the entrance to the evening market in the provincial capital city of Pattani killed one preson, according to local media reports.

BANGKOK (Sputnik) — At least 16 individuals were wounded and one person was killed in a homemade bomb explosion at a market in the province of Pattani in southern Thailand, which is home to an ongoing separatist insurgency, local media reported Monday.

The explosion occurred around 7 p.m. local time (12:00 GMT) at the entrance to the evening market in the provincial capital city of Pattani. Five children are among the injured. All the wounded were taken to the city hospital, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported, specifying that a woman was killed.

According to reports, police suspect that the explosion was prepared by a separatist organization operating in the three predominantly Muslim provinces bordering with Malaysia, which is also called "the deep South" of the country.

In 2004, a conflict started in the south of Thailand. The Muslim populations of the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat have been striving for independence from predominantly Buddhist Thailand, and the creation of an independent state with Muslim majority, or joining Malaysia.