Three gunmen attacked a school bus near Thailand's border with Myanmar on Tuesday, killing two teen-age students and injuring 15 others, officials said.
The shooting occurred in southern Ratchaburi province, about six miles from Myanmar, provincial Gov. Kometh Duangthongdee told reporters. Relations between the Southeast Asian neighbors have deteriorated since a shelling incident two weeks ago along their frontier, and fighting between Myanmar rebels and the government often spills over into Thailand.
Three gunmen dressed as ethnic minority Karen rebels from Myanmar and armed with M-16s opened fire on the bus at around 7 a.m. in the province's Suan Phung district, the governor said. Police said the bus was climbing a steep road in a mountainous jungle area.
The victims were 14 to 17 years old. The wounded were rushed to a hospital, while the gunmen were believed to have escaped back into Myanmar, police said. They said the motive for the attack was not clear.
A schoolgirl who survived said the gunmen, who wore military fatigues and hoods, sprayed the bus with bullets from both sides of the road. "There was nothing but screaming on the bus," the girl, who identified herself only as Siriporn, told the Raum Duay Chauy Khan radio station. "I ducked down and escaped the bullets."
Karen rebels from Myanmar have crossed into Thailand in the past to mount attacks, including sieges of a hospital near the border and of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, the capital.
Myanmar's military junta accused the Thai army of launching an artillery barrage across the border on May 20 to support attacks by ethnic minority rebels fighting the government.
Thailand insists that its forces only fired a few warning shots after stray shells from a skirmish between rebels and the Myanmar army landed on the Thai side of the border.
Myanmar responded by closing some border checkpoints and withholding visas for Thai officials. State media in the isolated nation have accused Thai authorities of plotting its destabilization.
Rebels belonging to Myanmar's Shan and Karen minorities have been fighting for autonomy since the country, also known as Burma, gained independence from Britain in 1948. The fighting often spills over into Thailand, where more than 100,000 refugees are living.
(China Daily June 5, 2002)
