From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:
BANGKOK: An unidentified gunman shot dead a railway worker in troubled southern Thailand yesterday, forcing a halt in rail service and stranding hundreds of passengers near the Malaysian border, a railway official said.
The 50-year-old track controller was killed by a gunman riding on the back of a motorcycle with an accomplice in the Sungai Padee district near the border with Malaysia, said the official.
It was the third attack on state rail employees in a month after two workers were wounded in earlier incidents.
The largely Muslim region has seen a spate of violence since January with government employees and police the prime targets of suspected separatists. More than 60 people have been killed.
“Security has deteriorated. We don’t know who will try to attack us. This is really bad,” the railway official at Haadyai Station, the biggest rail terminal in southern Thailand, said by telephone.
About 11 trains scheduled to leave Haadyai for Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces were halted until further notice, said the official.
Hundreds of stranded passengers have been offered bus transport to their destinations, he said.
Unionised railway workers are seeking assurances from the authorities that they would be given adequate security.