
Only the wooden planks of a kerbside stall, which absorbed the force of the blast, prevented serious harm.
Ethnic Malay insurgents are suspected of detonating the bomb at 8am on Highway 4084 (Narathiwat-Tak Bai Road) in Tambon Praiwan.
Inspecting the scene, Tak Bai deputy inspector Pol Captain Suriya Jomsuriya and his team found a three-inch-deep, 12-inch-wide crater and fragments of a one-kilogram bomb scattered through the damaged stall.
Tak Bai Pol Captain Kareeya Teemung was leading a six-strong team by armoured truck and two motorcycles when suspected insurgents in hiding detonated the bomb planted under the stall.