Two police officers were seriously injured when their armour-plated pickup truck was hit by a roadside IED in Kapho district of Pattani province on Friday afternoon.
The powerful explosion blew the truck off the road and into a roadside swamp. The two officers were rushed to the district hospital by a reinforcement unit.
Subsequently, a doctor at the hospital said that one of them, Pol Cpt Panakorn Intha, had succumbed to his injuries.
Police say the two officers were on their way to investigate a report of a stolen motorcycle, after they had received a call from a villager in Talotue Raman sub-district.
As their vehicle was approaching the village, insurgents lying in wait behind bushes detonated a 15kg improvised explosive device (IED) buried by the roadside.
Police claim that the fake call about the stolen bike was made by an accomplice, to lure the officers into the deadly ambush.
