Suspected insurgents attacked a gold shop and a military checkpoint in southern Thailand on Saturday.

The alleged terrorists detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) outside the gold shop, wrecking its facade in the Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province in the early hours of October 21.

Tak Bai District Police said they also received reports that unidentified gunmen had opened fire and hurled pipe bombs at a checkpoint some 50 metres from the shop. A 30-minute gunfight ensued before the assailants fled into a forest when reinforcements arrived.

Authorities said seven officers were slightly injured.

An electric post was also damaged when a roadside bomb exploded 200 metres away from the checkpoint.

Police received were alerted later in the morning that another explosion had hit the district's tambon Khosit, toppling over 10 power poles in the area, which was cordoned off for investigations.

Police Colonel Direk Chomyong, deputy police chief of Narathiwat Province, said the coordinated attacks were believed to have been carried out by insurgents creating unrest on the eve of the Tak Bai massacre's 19th anniversary.

The Tak Bai incident was a violent police crackdown on October 25, 2004 in which 85 protesters died in Narathiwat province. Officers were said to have opened fire on the crowd, killing seven. Dozens more were arrested, but died of suffocation or organ collapse when they were piled on top of one another in a truck on the way to the Inkayut Army Camp.

Islamic separatist terror attacks target the three southernmost provinces of Thailand - Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat - next to the border with Mulsim neighbors Malaysia. Thai state employees and infrastructure are often hit while attacks on civilians are rare.

Officials believe the conflict dates to a deal in 1909 that the British Empire struck to incorporate the Muslim region into the Siamese mainland.

The region's culture is more similar to Malaysia and dramatically different to Buddhist Thais causing decades of tension that lead to the emergence of separatist groups fighting for independence in the 1960s.

The struggle has continued ever since with more than 7,344 people killed and 13,641 injured between January 2004 and March 2022.

The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office warns against all but essential travel to the region while Canada's government warns its nationals to 'avoid all travel' to the three provinces.

Suspected insurgents attacked a gold shop and a military checkpoint in southern Thailand on Saturday.

The alleged terrorists detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) outside the gold shop, wrecking its facade in the Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province in the wee hours of October 21.

Tak Bai District Police said they also received reports that unidentified gunmen had opened fire and hurled pipe bombs at a checkpoint some 50 metres from the shop. A 30-minute gunfight ensued before the assailants fled into a forest when reinforcements arrived.

Authorities said seven officers were slightly injured.

An electric post was also damaged when a roadside bomb exploded 200 metres away from the checkpoint.

Police received were alerted later in the morning that another explosion had hit the district's tambon Khosit, toppling over 10 power poles in the area, which was cordoned off for investigations.

Police Colonel Direk Chomyong, deputy police chief of Narathiwat Province, said the coordinated attacks were believed to have been carried out by insurgents creating unrest on the eve of the Tak Bai massacre's 19th anniversary.

The Tak Bai incident was a violent police crackdown on October 25, 2004 in which 85 protesters died in Narathiwat province. Officers were said to have opened fire on the crowd, killing seven. Dozens more were arrested, but died of suffocation or organ collapse when they were piled on top of one another in a truck on the way to the Inkayut Army Camp.

Islamic separatist terror attacks target the three southernmost provinces of Thailand - Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat - next to the border with Mulsim neighbors Malaysia. Thai state employees and infrastructure are often hit while attacks on civilians are rare.

Officials believe the conflict dates to a deal in 1909 that the British Empire struck to incorporate the Muslim region into the Siamese mainland.

The region's culture is more similar to Malaysia and dramatically different to Buddhist Thais causing decades of tension that lead to the emergence of separatist groups fighting for independence in the 1960s.

The struggle has continued ever since with more than 7,344 people killed and 13,641 injured between January 2004 and March 2022.

The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office warns against all but essential travel to the region while Canada's government warns its nationals to 'avoid all travel' to the three provinces.