Pattani, Thailand  - A bomb killed two people, including a journalist, and injured 30 in a Thai-Malaysian border town in the latest act of violence in Thailand's majority-Muslim deep South, police said Friday.

The bomb was detonated about 9 pm Thursday in Sungai Kolok, 850 kilometres south of Bangkok, after Thai journalists and police had gathered at the scene of an earlier, smaller roadside explosion.

Killed in the blast was a reporter for the Thai Rath newspaper. The second victim, a villager, died in hospital Friday morning, police said.

Of the 30 injured, five were in critical condition, hospital sources said.

"These people are trying to kill the tourism industry in Sungai Kolok," Narathiwat Governor Kalan Suphakitvilakarn said.

Sungai Kolok, a tough border town, has long been popular among Malaysian tourists for its once wild nightlife.

Visits have dropped off since January 2004 when the town became a target for bombings and attacks by an increasingly militant Muslim-based separatist movement in the region.

Acts of violence in Thailand's deep South - which comprises Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces - have claimed more than 2,700 lives over the past four years.

The three provinces bordering Malaysia were the independent Islamic sultanate of Pattani more than 200 years ago before it fell under Bangkok's rule. More than 80 per cent of the three provinces' 2 million people are Muslims, making the region an anomaly in predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

A separatist struggle has simmered in the area for decades but took a turn for the worse in January 2004 when Muslim militants attacked an army depot and stole 300 weapons, prompting a crackdown that further inflamed the local population against the government. (dpa)