This is the shocking moment a car bomb exploded in front of a police station in conflict-torn southern Thailand.

CCTV footage shows the explosive detonating under a police officer's car at the Sri Sakhon District Police Station in Narathiwat province, on February 4.

A fire broke out and engulfed the rear end of the vehicle. There were no injuries or casualties reported.

Police Colonel Phakwat Wansanuk, superintendent of the Sri Sakhon Police Station, led an explosive ordnance team to inspect the scene.

He said: 'The officers on duty at the Sri Sakhon Police Station were all startled by the loud noise. They found that a black Toyota pickup truck belonging to Police Sergeant Major Sulkifli Jehmala, 32, was damaged and some smoke was billowing into the sky.

'The rear bed of the truck appeared to have been damaged by the explosion, causing it to be torn and parts of the truck to fall out.'

Police found parts of an improvised explosive device believed to have been detonated remotely.

The truck owner Sulkifli said: 'At around 7:30 am, I drove the truck to drop my children off at the Sri Sakhon Vitthaya School and my wife at the Sri Sakhon Hospital before arriving at the station at around 9 am.'

He added he usually parked his car at his home. Investigators have collected CCTV footage from his house to find who planted the bomb.

Shortly after the explosion, a second car bomb was detonated in a different district in the province.

The blast was reportedly aimed at local district chief Abdulmurid Ela, who had just alighted from his MG car minutes before it burst into flames from a bomb detonation in the Yi Ngo district.

The official said: 'I recently took the car to be repaired for flood damage. After that, I hit a cow and the car had to be repaired a second time at the same garage.

'There is no fence around my house. Normally, I park my car outside in an open area.'

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.