Sunday Times 2
Seven hurt as car bomb hits Thai tourist island of Samui
View(s):BANGKOK, April 11 (AFP) -A car bomb on the Thai resort island of Samui has wounded seven people, including an Italian girl, police said today, in a further blow to the country’s tarnished reputation as a top tourist destination.
The bomb, packed inside a Mazda pick-up truck with false number plates, exploded late Friday in the car park of the Central Festival mall on the popular island while late-night shoppers were inside the building.
Police said the car had been stolen on March 31 from Yala, one of Thailand’s three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces that have been scorched by a 10-year insurgency in which more than 6,300 people have been killed.
Police officers inspect the site of a car bomb blast at a car park of a shopping mall on the Thai tourist island of Koh Samui April 10 (REUTERS)