Teacher shot dead at school in Thailand's violence-wracked south

PATTANI, Thailand (AP) - Police say a Thai teacher was shot dead while having lunch at his school's cafeteria, the first death of an educator this year in Thailand's violence-wracked south.

Police Colonel Pakdee Preechachon said today that 51-year-old Chonlathee Charoenchon was killed by gunmen at Ban Tanyong School in Bacho district in Narathiwat province.

Col Pakdee said four gunmen entered the school's compound on two motorcycles, and one of them took the teacher's car after having shot him.

Nearly 160 school personnel have been killed since an Islamist insurgency first flared in Thailand's three southernmost provinces in 2004.