• 
• 

Published on January 1, 2008

Police claimed the three confessed to the attack, which wounded 26 people, including foreign tourists.

Two bombs planted behind loudspeakers at the discotheque at the Riviera Hotel on Prachawiwat Road went off at about 4am, sending New Year revellers fleeing in panic.

Some ran to the parking lot behind the hotel to retrieve their motorcycles when a third bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded. Fire engulfed the motorcycles, damaging about 20 of them.

Later a similar bomb attack took place at the Marina Hotel on Charoenkhet Road.

A bomb went off in the discotheque on the second floor of the hotel, sending revellers running in panic.

A second bomb then exploded in the hotel parking lot.

Police said 31 people were injured in the second hotel attack. Two were in a serious condition.

Narathiwat governor Karun Suppakitwilekakarn said the three suspects were Muhammad Saki Madeurae, 23, Sahae Sa-a, 24 and Assaroh Mayi, 29, all from local men.

The arrest of the suspects came after police inspected security cameras at the hotels, Karun said.

The governor said one suspect confessed that the group wanted to instigate chaos during the New Year holiday.

An initial investigation by police showed the three had records of being involved in violence in Sungai Kolok and Sungai Padi districts.

The number of violent incidents in the deep South rose in 2007, the director of a group that monitors attacks said yesterday.

Prof Srisompob Jitpiromsri said: "The rate of violence was high in the early period of 2007, and the total number of incidents in the year was higher than in 2006, when there were 1,815 incidents.

"But both years saw less violence than in 2005, when 2,297 incidents took place."

Comparing the four years, the highest number of violent incidents took place in September 2004, followed by June this year, he said.

The Nation