 Troops have been put on full alert |
Police in Thailand say suspected militants have stolen a large quantity of bomb-making material in the mainly-Muslim south of the country. Ten masked men armed with assault rifles overpowered security guards and stole dynamite, detonators and ammonium nitrate from a quarry, police said.
The attack took place in Yala province, one of three under martial law since unrest started in January.
A bomb attack at the weekend near the Malaysian border wounded 30 people.
The deputy police commander in the region, Lieutenant General Thani Twibsri, said the raid was carried out by militant groups who could be planning a major attack.
"It is the work of the same group of terrorists who have been creating the violence and causing trouble in the area," he said.
After tying up two security guards, the attackers took 1.4 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, commonly used as a fertiliser, 58 sticks of dynamite and 180 detonators, police said.
"With this amount of fertiliser, you could blow up a whole town," Pallop Pinmanee, deputy chief of the Internal Security Operations Command, told the Reuters news agency at the scene of the robbery.
Security forces country have been put on high alert in the three provinces under martial law - Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat - and also in two other provinces, Songkhla and Satun.
Thailand's Interior Minister, Bhokin Bhalakula, said he feared the militants would attack tourist destinations during April's water festival, known as Songkran.
"I suspect that the culprits behind this heist are aiming to strike before or during Songkran in order to terrify tourists and make a strong impact on tourism industry," he said.
 | SOUTHERN UNREST 4 Jan - Raid on army depot kills 4 soldiers 5 Jan - Martial law enforced 13 Jan - Thailand starts joint border patrols with Malaysia 27 March - Bombing at a tourist bar in Narathiwat province 30 March - Explosives seized from a quarry in Yala province |
Suspension On Saturday a motorcycle bomb exploded outside a tourist bar in the town of Sungai Kolok, in Narathiwat province.
Around 30 people were injured including a number of Malaysian tourists.
The Thai prime minister said he believed the attackers were of dual Thai-Malaysian nationality and had escaped over the border into Malaysia, though Malaysian officials have denied this.
The attack on the bar has prompted the suspension of a $300m aid package approved by the Thai government two weeks ago and aimed at tackling the causes of unrest.
Around 60 people have been killed in a series of attacks in the Thai south, which started with a raid on an army barracks on 4 January.
The unrest has been blamed on Islamist separatists in the south who the government fears may have combined forces with international networks.
The attacks have mostly targeted policemen, officials, and village leaders, while schools have been among the buildings attacked.
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With this amount of fertiliser, you could blow up a whole town 
