The 50-kilogram device was hidden inside a truck and exploded during the busy lunch hour in the centre of Narathiwat, the main town in the province of the same name.
“It’s very horrible. We had intelligence reports that militants would mount a large-scale attack,” Lieutenant General Pichet Wisaichorn, the southern region army commander said.
He said seven of the 42 people injured in the blast were in a critical condition.
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