Two people died on Tuesday after a bomb went off outside a Thai elementary school in Tak Bai, southern Narathiwat province of Thailand, the police confirmed to Efe.
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The report said a man and his daughter, a 4-year-old kindergartener enrolled at the school, were killed in the attack.
Insurgents in the kingdom’s so-called “Deep South” frequently target schools and teachers as a symbol of Thai state power over the culturally distinct Muslim-majority region, which Thailand colonised more than a century ago.
Debris from the blast was strewn across the area while an abandoned child’s school bag lay on the road, according to an Agence France-Presse journalist at the scene.
A statement from UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s advocacy organization, said it was “shocked and saddened” by the incident.
“No children, nor any caretakers or education professionals should live or learn under fear of such attacks”.
Police and soldiers routinely accompany teachers and children to and from schools in the region’s most unsafe “red zones”.
Scores of teachers have been killed by rebels – some executed in front of pupils.
He also critcised non-government organisations he said were accusing the government of violating suspects’ rights, but not taking any stand to protect the victims of the violence.
The explosion hit about 10 people.
Officials hinted that political opponents of the junta were responsible for the attacks, but Thai and foreign terrorism experts suggested they were carried out by Muslim separatists from southern Thailand.
Police said the bombings were related to the insurgency gripping southern Thailand and arrested a suspect in connection with the attacks.
The aim is to set the ground for formal peace talks, which stalled following Thailand’s 2014 coup.
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But it is unclear if the rebel representatives at the table have command-and-control over increasingly blood thirsty footsoldiers.
