Two blasts, one at a fruit market and another explosion minutes later at a nearby teashop wounded 73 people in Muslim southern Thailand on Tuesday, where 3,200 people have died in a five-year rebellion, police said.

The police believe that the first explosion appeared to target an outdoor meeting of village chiefs at a district office in Narathiwat, one of the three southernmost provinces affected by the violence.

The other bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded two minutes later at a tea-shop 100 meters (yards) away, police said. Forty were released after treatment for minor injuries, the official added. Five of the victims had shrapnel wounds to the head or torso, and two needed surgery, a state hospital official told Reuters.

Narathiwat and the neighbouring provinces of Pattani and Yala, adjacent to Malaysia, were a Muslim sultanate until it was annexed by predominantly Bangkok a century ago. Around 80 percent of people there remain Muslim and speak a Malay dialect, not Thai.

The violence has ranged from drive-by shootings and bombings, to beheadings and appears to target both Buddhists and Muslims associated with the Thai state, such as police, soldiers, teachers and government officials.

Human rights groups also accuse the Thai military and police of atrocities. No group has ever claimed responsibility for the violence, which has remained limited to the immediate area.