One killed, six hurt in troubled Thai south

The attacks followed more than 70 bomb blasts over four days which police have blamed on Islamic militants. An explosion late Saturday killed one man and injured two women in a hotel karaoke bar in Yala province.

In Sunday morning's shooting in neighbouring Narathiwat province, Muslim businessman Niso Mueda, 48, a former provincial government official, was shot dead in his car by a gunman using an AK-47 assault rifle, said police.

And four policemen on patrol in the province's Chao Ai Rong district were hit by an explosive device that also injured two villagers, police said.

A separatist movement has simmered in the south ever since Thailand annexed an ethnic Malay sultanate there a century ago, and insurgencies erupted in the 1970s and again in early 2004.

The latest unrest between militants and security forces of the mainly Buddhist country has claimed more than 1,300 lives, although police also blame organised crime groups in the border region for many killings.

Thai police Friday arrested six suspects under emergency laws following the latest wave of attacks using mostly small and crudely-made explosive devices made with agricultural fertiliser and packed with nails.