A car bomb exploded outside a hotel in southern Thailand tonight, killing five people and injuring up to 40 just two hours after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra cut short a trip to the restive region.
The blast in the southern border town of Sungai Kolok was the deadliest single bombing in a campaign of violence that has gripped the Muslim-dominated deep south for the past 13 months and claimed about 600 lives.
"The number of dead has risen to five now... and some 40 others are injured," Narathiwat provincial Governor Pracha Taerat said in a live interview with broadcaster iTV.
Police at the scene told AFP the bomb was detonated in a pickup truck outside the Marina Hotel at 7:05 pm, in an area crowded with open-air beer bars.
"This was a huge car bomb, with almost 100 kilograms of explosives," the governor said, adding about four shop fronts were destroyed in the blast.
A wedding party attended by a number of local police had gathered on the third floor of the hotel, police said.
Sungai Kolok is a town along the Malaysian border whose nightlife district is routinely visited by scores of Thai and Malaysian tourists. It has been the scene of three other major blasts since last March.
Most explosions in the Thai south have been relatively small, with bombs hidden in motorcycles or placed along the side of the road.
Pracha said tonight's bomb showed a new level of destruction in the region.