A soldier was killed and 5 others injured in southern Thailand when suspected insurgents triggered a bomb explosion on Sunday, local police said.

The victims were on patrol near the railway line in Su-ngai Padi district of province of Narathiw at the time.

The bomb exploded as a truck carrying soldiers on patrol drove over a bridge in the southern province of Narathiwat, the police said.

The police are currently investigating the incident.

Meanwhile, the deputy prime minister and interior minister, Pol. Gen. Chidchai Vanasatidya met senior security officials in Bangkok to discuss the situation in the South and to lay out a long-term plan to combat the militants on Sunday.

Pol. Gen. Chidchai was quoted by the Thai News Agency as saying that the number of incidents in the South in April had fallen. But the militants had begun to threatened workers in the last few weeks trying to force them to leave the area in order to disrupt the government's efforts to create employment in the three troubled border provinces.

The militants want to create more unrest to coincide with the planned visit of representatives from the Organization of Islamic Conference, due later this month, he said.

The violent unrest in the three southern border provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat since early 2004 leaving more than 600 people dead.

Source: Xinhua