Train accident in southern Thailand kills one, injures 13

May 4, 2008, 7:05 GMT

Bangkok - A train derailment in the southern province of Songkhla killed one man, injured 13 people and hastened the delivery of a healthy baby, railway officials said Sunday.

The train derailed Saturday night in Songkhla province, about 700 kilometres south of Bangkok, as it was leaving a small station en route to Sungai Kolok on the Thai-Malaysian border, State Railways of Thailand announced.

Of 14 people admitted to hospital, one died of severe abdominal injuries, state-run Thai News Agency said.

A pregnant woman travelling on the train was also admitted to hospital where she gave birth to a child, the agency reported.

Both mother and child were listed in safe condition.

The cause of the accident was not yet determined Sunday. Over the past four years there have been numerous attacks on trains by Muslim separatists fighting for autonomy in deep South, which includes Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala provinces and parts of Songkhla.

The region comprised the independent Islamic sultanate of Pattani before it was colonized by Bangkok more than 200 years ago.

An estimated 3,000 people have died from escalating violence in the majority Muslim area since the separatist struggle took a turn for the worse in January 2004.