Roadside bomb kills one, injures six in Pattani
A roadside bomb exploded yesterday afternoon killing one soldier and injuring three soldiers and three civilians, including two 5-year-old girls, in Tambon Paku of Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district.
Police investigators found that the 5-kilogram home-made bomb, which went off at 3pm on the span of the Paku Bridge in Paku Ville, created a 40cm-wide, 10cm-deep crater and left shrapnel scattered all over the area. It also riddled an Army mobile-development team’s pick-up truck with holes and shattered the windows of the team’s backhoe.
Master Sergeant First Class Channarong Phromchai, 23, succumbed to fatal head and torso wounds and was pronounced dead at hospital. The three wounded officials were Second Lieutenant Ratchadabodin Chanwittayanat, 25, Master Sergeant First Class Russanee Kama, 25, and Sergeant Sunny Yusoh, 30. The three slightly injured civilians were Saleuma Yapa, 57, Adina Wanglee, 5, and Nattisa Khananop, 5.
An investigation found that a three-vehicle team led by Lt-Colonel Supachai Jessada was returning to its base in Thung Yang Daeng from working at a demonstration farm in Ban Sarawan in Tambon Sai Thong of Pattani’s Mai Kaen district when the bomb went off. Saleuma was driving the two children to visit a doctor when her motorcycle was struck by the blast.
