1 policeman killed, others wounded as Thai polls open

BANGKOK, Apr 19: Suspected Muslim militants ambushed police guarding a polling station in southern Thailand today, killing one officer and wounding another as voting began for the upper house Senate.

Separately, a bomb exploded at another polling station in the same Muslim-dominated province of Narathiwat, wounding two policemen and a village leader, a police spokesman told Reuters.

The attacks occurred shortly before nationwide voting began in a poll analysts say could help resolve the constitutional chaos left by this month's inconclusive general election.

More than 1,100 people have been killed in a two-year separatist insurgency in the three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala bordering Malaysia.

REUTERS