Suspected Muslim fighters have killed three Buddhist labourers and injured one in Thailand's troubled south.
The latest attack follows a visit to the south on Saturday by Thailand's prime minister and four killings over the weekend.
The victims were on their way to work at a rubber plantation in Songkhla province on Monday morning when they were ambushed by assailants who opened fire with shotguns and pistols, police Colonel Thammasak Wasasiri said.
Another man was badly wounded in the attack, he said.
"Initial investigations showed that it was an attack by Muslim insurgents," Thammasak said.
The attack took place in Sabayoi, a predominantly Muslim district, next to Pattani province, which along with Yala and Narathiwat provinces has been the scene of an uprising that has led to more than 1,900 deaths in the past three years.
A Muslim man in Yala, a Buddhist man in Pattani and a Buddhist couple in Songkhla were killed over the weekend.
In Pattani on Monday, a group of 70 Muslim women along with their children gathered in front of a police station in Nong Chik district to demand the release of Manadee Samah, a suspected Muslim fighter who was arrested on Sunday.
No violence was reported.
Surayud Chulanont, the prime minister, has pledged to end the violence and upon his appointment as premier, he offered an apology to local Muslims for past government wrongdoing.
But his visit to the region on Saturday – in which he reiterated his commitment to forging a peaceful solution to the unrest – coincided with the ambushing of police patrols and torching of a government school by the suspected fighters.