Suspect insurgents on Tuesday morning shot dead a local government official in Thailand's southern province of Yala, and looted his gun.

 

Police said the official was followed by four insurgents on two motorcycles shortly after he left his office in Bannang Sata district. He was shot many times in the neck, head and torso when he was driving home.

 

The victim was later identified as Prapat Chaemsai, 34, an official at the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority, the Bangkok Post said on its website.

 

Police said the shootings killed Prapat instantly.

 

Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani are the three southern border provinces plagued with violence related to an ongoing insurgency which has claimed more than 1,900 lives since it resumed in early 2004. The violence was blamed on a complex web of Islamic separatists, local corruption and organized crime.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2007)