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Bangkok installs cameras

Thailand yesterday began a dramatic tightening of security, including in Bangkok after last weekend's airport bombing, as four more people were killed in attacks blamed on Islamic insurgents.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra urged Thais not to overreact to fears of a new attack by southern Islamic separatists, even as police began setting up more than 400 security checkpoints and installing new security cameras around Bangkok.

"People should not panic over the rumors of next attacks," Thaksin told reporters in Bangkok.

Bangkok police chief Lieutenant General Pansiri Prapawat said police were setting up 437 security checkpoints and surveillance cameras around the city.

"We will install as many cameras as we can, mostly in areas that have crowds of people, like the entrances of department stores or bus stations," he said.

Fourteen cameras were being installed along Bangkok's famous Khao Sarn road, he said. The strip is popular with foreign backpackers and draws large crowds for next week's Buddhist Water Festival, marking the traditional Thai new year.

Government House has banned cars from parking overnight to prevent car bombs, security chief Pongsak Siriwong said.

Interior Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya also said authorities were considering placing landmines and barriers around remote police stations in the deep south to deter attackers.

Security has already been tightened at Thailand's eight major airports, with the air force heading up efforts to screen baggage more closely and dispatch bomb-sniffing dogs.

The government hopes the additional security will ease worries that the insurgents who took up arms against the government in January last year could expand their operations outside the mainly Muslim southern provinces near the Malaysian border.

The weekend attack on an airport, a supermarket and a hotel in Hat Yai -- a regional commercial center in Songkhla province -- raised fears that the insurgents were getting better organized and ready to attack bigger targets.

The bombings were followed by a spate of killings typical of the conflict that has left at least 640 people dead.

One of the latest killings, the shooting death of a village headman early on Tuesday, also came in Songkhla, which had been spared most of the near-daily attacks.

Three others -- a village headman and two village security guards -- were shot dead on Tuesday in Narathiwat province, police said.

The shootings were followed by a bomb blast early yesterday at a food store near Sungai Kolok train station in Narathiwat.
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