A bomb exploded outside a hotel in southern Thailand on Tuesday night, hours after another bomb blast and a wave of school arson attacks.

The device, hidden inside a motorcycle, shattered windows and destroyed a number of vehicles.

Police said nobody was injured in the blast, which took place in Pattani province, one of Thailand's five Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia.

Police later defused a second bomb in the same town.

Thai officials have described the attacks as a local problem, though there are fears that in the wake of the Bali bombing, any threat of violence could severely damage the country's tourism industry.

Some European countries and Australia have already warned nationals of the risks of visiting some tourist sites in Thailand .

Pre-dawn raids

Earlier on Tuesday there were arson attacks on five schools and a bomb blast at a Buddhist temple. A second bomb was found and defused at a Chinese temple in Yala.

They wanted to discredit the country's image

Police Chief Sant Sarutanond

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said Thailand is not at risk from international terrorism and he quickly ruled out foreign involvement in Tuesday's attacks.

"It is a local problem and it will not be difficult to find out who did it," he told reporters.

Mr Thaksin also said he believed those responsible for the arson attacks were not involved in a series of murders of police officers in the area earlier this year.

Songkhla province, where the arson attacks happened, is mostly Buddhist, but it has a large Muslim minority. The past year's violence has largely been in the neighbouring Muslim-dominated provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

The area has experienced Muslim separatist violence in past years, but most analysts now believe any militant groups are small and are not capable of carrying out major attacks.

Police Chief Sant Sarutanond said the school fires, which appeared to be carried out by a single group, were aimed at damaging Thailand.

"They didn't want money or to take lives, they wanted to discredit the country's image," he told reporters.

"They wanted to create a situation because this region (South-East Asia) has a problem but Thailand doesn't. It has been done by a group of people who have ill will against Thailand."

Malaysia and Singapore have warned Thailand that Islamic militants may try to hide in Thailand. Western countries have warned of possible attacks in tourist resorts such as Phuket.