Two shot dead, seven wounded in blast in Thai south: police

Suspected Islamic insurgents in Thailand's restive south have shot and killed two Thai Buddhist men and wounded seven other men with a bomb hidden in a motorcycle, police said Friday.

They said a 32-year-old construction worker was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in troubled Pattani province mid-Thursday afternoon as he went to pick up his children from school.

In the same province that evening, a 35-year-old university employee was killed in a drive-by shooting while returning from work.

Five soldiers and two villagers were wounded, three of the soldiers critically, when a bomb was detonated in a motorbike stationed at a checkpoint in neighbouring Yala province on Friday afternoon.