Three police officers were killed in Thailand’s restive southernmost province of Narathiwat today (Tuesday) in two separate incidents.

Two police officers were killed and four others injured when a pickup truck, in which they were travelling, was blown up by a device remotely detonated by suspected insurgents in Janae district.

In a separate incident, in Bajoh district of Narathiwat, one paramilitary ranger was shot and fatally wounded by a suspected insurgent as he was approaching a jungle shelter.

Police said that the explosive device was buried in a drainage pipe under a road in Ban Nam Won, in Chang Phuek sub-district in Janae district, by insurgents. When a convoy of two pickup trucks, carrying several police officers, passed the spot, the insurgents detonated the device.

The explosion hit one of the trucks, killing two police officers and injuring four others. All six victims were rushed to Janae district hospital.

Separately, in Bajoh district, a Marine special operations unit was sent to the forest, in Village 6 of Barae Tai sub-district, after the Marine base received a tipoff from a villager that some insurgents were taking refuge there.

As the unit was approaching the hideout, the insurgents opened fire with automatic weapons, fatally wounding a ranger, who later died at the provincial hospital.

Marine reinforcements were sent to the scene to hunt down the insurgents, believed to number about six.