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And, student activists stepped up calls for the government to release five students.

The explosion occurred at 9.30am at the Ban Bang Khunthong School in Tak Bai.

Police said the bomb exploded when the soldiers, who escort teachers to schools, rested inside the school compound. The bomb was buried near where they sat and was detonated with a mobile phone.

Meanwhile, in Hat Yai, the Student Federation of Southern Thailand and 16 nongovernmental organisations reiterated their demand for the release of five Yala Rajabhat University students, detained without charge on suspicion of having links with Malay Muslim insurgents.

The five students were detained on August 15.

At a news conference yesterday the federation's secretarygeneral, Romsi Dorkor, said the five were Ismaae Teh, 22, Amasi Manag, 22, Rusin Tuyong, 23, Waerosee Lateh, 23 and Romlee Lateh, 20.

The groups demanded the five be charged or released.

Ismaae and Amasi had been previously arrested and alleged then they were tortured during a nineday detention. They were later released without charge.