DHAKA: Six people including two policemen were shot dead in a fierce gunbattle between Thai security forces and militants, authorities said on Sunday, after a raid in the insurgency-plagued south of the country.

The clash broke out after a combined army, police and paramilitary group tried to search a village in Narathiwat, one of several conflict-prone provinces in the Muslim-majority region, on Saturday afternoon.

‘It was quite a big gunbattle which lasted a long time,’ southern army spokesman Colonel Pramote Prom-In told media, reports The Straits Times.

‘The dead were on our wanted lists,’ he said, adding that a further seven suspects with warrants issued for them were also arrested in the raid.

BDST: 1458 HRS, OCT 06, 2013
RoR/BSK