Suspected militants shot dead two teachers and set their bodies alight on a small paved road just 100 metres away from the village school at which they worked in Yala's Tambon Yupo.

Ban Bado elementary school director Chamnong Chupatpong and teacher Manoe Sonkaew were travelling in a pickup truck when four suspected militants on motorbikes drove up and shot them at close range.

Their bodies were dragged out onto the road about 20 metres away from the pickup and doused with gasoline before being set on fire. The pickup was also gutted by fire.

Officials said spikes were placed on the road leading to the spot to slow down authorities heading there. At least fourteen 9mm casings were found at the crime scene.

Two women teachers from the school were seen embracing their charred colleagues and weeping profusely when authorities arrived at the scene.

The police chief of Yala's Muang district, Colonel Phumiphet Phiphatphetpum, ordered the area sealed off and all connecting roads checked as security forces launched a manhunt for the culprits.

Somart Suwanthawi, deputy director of Education District One in Yala, described the incident as "the most brutal I have witnessed since 2005" - the time when teachers became increasingly targeted by militants in the region.

"When we arrived at the scene we saw something that was just unthinkable," said Somart, referring to the two corpses.

Somart said the attack was carried out just metres away from an inhabited area but the villagers were too afraid to come out.

"None of the villagers came out to help during the attack. They all closed their doors and windows and hid inside their homes," he said.

"We have to accept the fact that the villagers are very scared. This has forced them to stay away from these kinds of incidents."

In Narathiwat province yesterday, village defence volunteer, Komhem Ya-kae was ambushed and shot dead by at least three gunmen on motorbikes, police said.

Bombings and drive-by shootings occur almost daily in Thailand's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani. More than 1,900 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed in the region since January 2004.

Nakarin Chinnawornkomol

The Nation

BAN BADO, YALA