Thai south shootings kill eight

Thai police officers inspect the site of an overnight attack by suspected separatist Muslim militants, in Narathiwat. Eight people have been killed over a 24-hour period in a series of shootings in Thailand's restive deep south. -- PHOTO: AFP

YALA (Thailand) - EIGHT people have been killed over a 24-hour period in a series of shootings across Thailand's restive deep south, police said on Wednesday.

The deaths come a week after the government said violence was escalating in the insurgency-plagued region, following a string of gun and bomb attacks.

A Buddhist teacher, aged 52, was shot dead in Songkhla province early on Tuesday morning while working his second job on a rubber plantation, police said.

Another Buddhist plantation worker was shot dead, and his wife injured, on their way to a work in the same province, also on Tuesday morning.

Later seven gunmen opened fire at a village teashop in Pattani province, killing three Muslim men aged between 42 and 60, followed by a drive-by shooting in nearby Yala province that killed a 69-year-old Muslim man.

Police said a group of armed men opened fire on another teashop in Narathiwat province on Tuesday night, killing two Buddhist men and injuring another three. -- AFP