NARATHIWAT (Thailand) - SUSPECTED Islamic militants opened fire at a Buddhist temple in Thailand's restive south where people were taking part in an aerobics class, wounding seven, police said on Tuesday.

Four armed insurgents stormed into the building in the troubled province of Narathiwat and attacked the group of around 50 villagers gathered inside the temple late on Monday, they said.

Two volunteer guards providing security for residents fired back and the rebels fled the scene. A 20-month-old girl was among the wounded but no one was seriously hurt, said police.

The incident had echoes of an attack on June 8 when gunmen burst into a mosque in Narathiwat and killed 11 people. The government blamed militants but villagers alleged security forces were to blame.

Violence has spiked in recent weeks in Thailand's Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia, where more than 3,700 people have died in a five-year separatist insurgency.

The attacks sometimes target Buddhists who are seen as a symbol of the government in the mainly Buddhist kingdom, but a think tank said this week that many more Muslims have been killed for being 'traitors'.

The southern region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension. -- AFP