Pattani, Thailand - Suspected separatists detonated two bombs in the violence-wracked province of Narathiwat on Tuesday, killing a woman and injuring 71 other people, police and hospital sources said.

The two separate bombs, planted in motorcycles, exploded outside a district office and a fruit market shortly after 11 am (0400 GMT) in Sukhirin district of Narathiwat province, 850 kilometres south of Bangkok, near the Thai-Malaysian border.

The explosion took place while village leaders from the area where about to enter the Sukhirin district office for a meeting, police said.

One woman was killed in the explosion. Of the 71 wounded, 30 were hospitalized with serious injuries, hospital sources said.

Acts of political violence in Thailand's majority-Muslim Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces, which border Malaysia, have claimed more than 2,700 lives over the past four years.

The three provinces comprised 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 Muslim, making the region an anomaly in predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

A separatist struggle has simmered in the area for decades but took a more violent turn 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)