Pattani, Thailand  - A band of suspected separatists on Thursday gunned down five road construction workers, including two women, and seriously injured a sixth, in the troubled province of Pattani.

An estimated 20 insurgents, armed with war weapons, attacked the road workers in Yarang district of Pattani, 750 kilometres south of Bangkok, at 9:20 am, said Yarang Police Colonel Poonsak Prasertmate.

Two of the dead were women.

"This attack was obviously planned in advance," said Poonsak. "They must have been observing the workers for days."

The attackers scattered nails on the road as they left the scene, to slow down pursuit.

The attack was the latest act of violence terrorizing the deep South, comprising Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces, where more than 3,000 people have fallen victim to clashes, explosions, beheadings and assassinations since early 2004.

The three provinces bordering Malaysia comprised the independent Islamic sultanate of Pattani more than 200 years ago before it fell under Bangkok's rule in the early
1900s. 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)