Three Thai policemen were killed and two wounded on Friday in a bomb and gun attack in the southern province of Yala where separatists have been waging a simmering insurgency against the state, the Daily Mail reported.

Police were traveling in two pick-up trucks when the first vehicle was blown up by a road-side bomb, police Lieutenant Colonel Chamnan Bhutpakdee said.

"The assailants detonated the bomb when the truck was passing over, instantly killing the three officers," he said.

Insurgents then opened fire on the second vehicle, wounding two officers, Chamnan said. One of them was in critical condition.

Yala, along with Pattani and Narathiwat, are Muslim-majority provinces in mostly Buddhist Thailand's deep south.

Insurgency has plagued the ethnic Malay region for decades but it intensified in 2004. Since then, more than 6,500 people have been killed, according to the Deep South Watch monitoring group.

Source: MENA