SUNGAI KOLOK, Thailand, 29 March 2004 — Thailand’s government said yesterday the violence engulfing the country’s Muslim-dominated south had worsened and vowed tougher measures against it, after a bombing in the region injured 29 people, including 10 Malaysian tourists.

It also voiced doubt over whether foreign terrorists were involved in the attack late Saturday in Sungai Kolok, a border town in southern Narathiwat province.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called an emergency meeting with his defense and foreign ministers, army commander and others to discuss the bombing, canceling a planned trip to Germany and Hungary.

“The meeting was of the view that the situation in the three southern provinces of Thailand had reached a crucial stage and had arrived at a turning point,” said a statement by the Foreign Ministry.

It said Thaksin was overseeing efforts to “bring the situation in the south back to normalcy and stability as soon as possible,” but did not provide details.

Narathiwat and nearby Yala and Pattani are the only provinces with Muslim majorities in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. A wave of attacks blamed on Muslim separatists has swept the region in recent months, leaving at least 50 people, mostly security personnel, dead.

Security forces were on alert in Sungai Kolok, a day after a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded outside a bar in the town’s tourist district.

Officials said 29 people, including 10 Malaysians, were wounded, at least three of them critically. Located on the border with Malaysia, the town is usually a bustling center of cross-border trade and smuggling. But it was quiet yesterday.

Police Lt. Gen. Prung Boonpadung said police were on “extreme alert” and were checking out shops where motorcycles can be modified.

Earlier, a government spokesman said Saturday’s bombing was a serious escalation of the violence.

“This incident is more severe in that those who did this intended to hurt the lives and property of innocent people,” government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair told reporters in Bangkok.

He said there was “no clear evidence” linking Saturday’s blast to foreign terrorists, though it was possible that the people who carried it out had received training abroad.