Two suspected insurgents were shot dead by security forces at a house in the Nong Chik district of Thailand’s southern province of Pattani on Thursday night.

Colonel Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the Fourth Army Region’s forward command of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), said Thursday night that the military received intelligence that two suspicious individuals had taken refuge in a house in Khlong Tan Yong and a joint team of military and police was sent to investigate.

He added that the military also approached community religious leaders and community heads in an attempt to persuade the suspects to surrender, because their location had already been surrounded.

The colonel claimed that the two suspects shot at the security forces and refused to surrender, after being approached by the local leaders.

Security forces returned fire and laid siege to the house for about three hours, until the gunfire, which is when the forces entered the building. The two suspects were found dead and in the possession of two handguns.

After the shootout, the house owner told the media that the two strangers had approached her son seeking permission to stay there overnight. She said she was worried that they would hurt her family if she refused.

Forensic investigators took the suspect’s fingerprints and are in the process of identifying them, and determining whether either of them had been involved in other violent incidents.