Yala: Suspected separatist militants have killed five civilians in Thailand's troubled south and burnt down a school, after twin bomb blasts wounded 74 people, authorities said today.

Police said gunmen broke into two homes in Yala province last evening, killing a 16-year-old boy and a 42-year-old man in separate attacks. Later, the charred remains of an unidentified man were found in a burnt-out pick-up truck on a roadside.

 A school janitor was also killed today morning in a drive-by shooting as he rode his motorcycle to work in Yala s provincial town, while later in nearby Narathiwat province a 44-year-old rubber tapper was shot dead. In Narathiwat province overnight, an elementary school was burnt down in anarson attack, local police said.

Schools and teachers are often targeted by southern rebels fighting for a separate state, as they accuse Bangkok of using the education system to impose Buddhist Thai culture on a region that is mainly Muslim and ethnic Malay.

The violence came after two bombs ripped through a market and tea shop near a local government office in Yala just before midday yesterday. Dozens of people were wounded in what police said was one of the biggest assaults on civilians since the separatist rebellion flared in early 2004.

Police and army officials yesterday told reporters that one woman was killed in the twin blasts, but today the public health ministry said that in fact the seriously injured woman had survived, but was in a coma.

Source : PTI