Crowds enjoy street sprinklers in Yala town on April 13th, 2012, during the Songkran Festival in Thailand. The water, a symbol of cleansing and renewal, provides many a welcome escape from the heat. [Amad Ramansiriwong/Khabar]

Strict security measures are in place in Thailand's Deep South as authorities combine a Songkran road safety campaign with heightened vigilance put in place since the coordinated bombings of March 31st.

A roadside bomb exploded at the entrance to Narathiwat Airport on Saturday (April 14th), damaging a billboard and a car parked nearby. The device, thought by authorities to have contained 5kg of explosives, was detonated remotely by a cell phone, according to a report in the state-run media.

Fortunately no-one was injured, and there have been no other reports of major terrorist activity in the region since the Songkran Festival, Thailand's biggest holiday, got underway on Friday.

Songkran is one of two seven-day periods when Thai authorities set up the "Seven Days of Danger" campaign to limit road carnage. The other period spans the western New Year.

The campaign has at its core an increased number of police checkpoints where cars are inspected for infractions ranging from failure to wear a seatbelt to drunk driving. Over the first four days of Songkran, over 112,000 people were fined or arrested for such offenses throughout Thailand.

Even with such measures in place, the official death toll over the first five days stood at 253 killed in road accidents, with over 2,500 admitted to hospital with injuries, according to the National Road Safety Centre.

On Sunday, a man described as "mentally deranged" was shot in the waist and later died in hospital after what has been described as an unprovoked attack on a soldier with a meat cleaver at a Seven Days of Danger checkpoint in Pattani province.

Images of the attack were caught on four of nine CCTV cameras set up in the area, officials said.

Lt Col Phumipan Boonruang of the Royal Thai Army Unit 23 stationed in Pattani identified the deceased as Makasafi Buti, age 29.

"He arrived in [a] Bangkok-registered Honda City, parked in the middle of the checkpoint and got out of the car wielding a meat cleaver, trying to hack the soldiers stationed there," he said.

The incident took place at 11:25pm at a police checkpoint set up in front of the Provincial Electricity Authority substation in Pattani's Talubo subdistrict.

Makasafi chased the heavily armed soldiers for several minutes, ignoring two warning shots fired into the air before finally hacking one of the soldiers in the back, after narrowly missing him in a previous attempted strike at the neck.

With that, another officer shot Makasafi in the waist. He was taken to Pattani Hospital, where he later died of his injuries.

"It's a good thing the soldier was wearing heavy protective gear, otherwise his injuries could have been severe," Lt Col Phumipan said.

Pattani Governor Theera Mintrasak told Khabar Southeast Asia that questioning of the man's relatives revealed he had previously been treated for psychiatric problems.

"It's possible that the intense April heat may have driven him into a psychotic state that led him to attack the security personal with a meat cleaver, but we've not yet ruled out that drugs might have been involved. We're awaiting the results of medical tests and also helping his relatives," he said.

Crowds enjoy street sprinklers in Yala town on April 13th, 2012, during the Songkran Festival in Thailand. The water, a symbol of cleansing and renewal, provides many a welcome escape from the heat. [Amad Ramansiriwong/Khabar]

The Songkran holidays in Thailand often see an increase in random violence as well as suicides. It is a time of year when most families get together to celebrate the New Year. But it also tends to bring out depression among those who feel alienated from family or society in general.

This year's celebrations in the southern region have also been affected by added tension brought on by a sting of strong earthquakes off the Indonesian island of Sumatra that were felt across the region and led to an evacuation of tsunami risk areas in the six Andaman Coast provinces.

A series of apparently co-ordinated terror attacks hit Hat Yai, Yala and Pattani on March 31st, with a combined toll of 15 killed and some 350 injured, in a sharp uptick of militant violence.