Eight dead in Thai bomb blasts

A badly injured Thai man is placed on a stretcher to be treated.

He is one of more than 70 people who were injured in a series of bomb blasts in Thailand's restive Muslim South.

At least eight others were killed.

Authorities say the explosions took place in the business district of Yala city around lunch time.

They blamed separatist militants, who have ratcheted up attacks recently, and said the bombs were placed in a car and motorcycle.

More than 5,000 people have died in the decades-old separatist rebellion, which resurfaced in January 2004 in provinces near the Malaysian border.

Jessica Gray, Reuters