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Two people were killed and four others injured in a shooting at the Hari Raya fair in Pattani’s Saiburi district on Wednesday night, police said.


Police inspect the scene

Chief of Sai Buri police station Pol Col Arsis Umayee said on Thursday morning that police received a report late last night of a shooting at the Hari Raya celebration fair site on Vasukree beach in tambon Taluban of Saiburi.

He led a joint police and military force, together with a bomb disposal unit, to inspect the incident scene. Police found spent 9mm cartridge shells and bomb debris in front of a bingo shop.

Witnesses told police that six people were seriously injured in the shooting and were taken to Saiburi hospital, where two of them were later pronounced dead.

The victims were identified as Sayan Ritthikorn, 47, owner of the bingo shop, and his daughter Prakairath, 28. They took bullets in the head and torso.

The other four wounded were transferred to Yala provincial hospital.

Witnesses said the victims were providing services for customers at the bingo shop and nearby gambling shops when two people dressed like Muslim women approached them and then opened fire with handguns.

The attackers then placed a metal box containing a 3kg home-made bomb on the ground in front of the bingo shop and fled.

The bomb was apparently intended to kill police who arrived after the attack, but luckily it went off too early. No one was hurt in the explosion.

Police believed it was the work of separatist militants who had earlier warned that fairs where various forms of gambling is available should not be held in the far South.

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