Two police officers and the mayor of a tambon administrative organisation (TAO) narrowly escaped injury when two improvised explosive devices, believed to have been pipe bombs, were thrown into a coffee shop at a petrol station in Thung Yang Daeng district of Thailand’s southernmost province of Pattani on Sunday.

District police suspect that southern rebels are responsible for the attack, intending to harm the two officers, Pol Lt-Col Veerawat Darongkoon, the suppression inspector, and Sobri Pohsu, mayor of the Nam Dam TAO.

Thung Yan Daeng police say that one of the rebels entered the coffee shop through the back door and lobbed the two pipe bombs into the shop. One of them exploded without hurting anybody. The intended targets fled in different directions.

The other device failed to detonate, as police believe that it was timed to explode later, when more policemen would arrive to investigate the first explosion.