A total of seven bombs exploded in Thai southern city of Hat Yai Sunday night, injuring at least nine people.

The coordinated bomb attacks aimed at different sites were launched by suspected insurgents at about 9 PM (14:00 GMT), a local police source told Xinhua.

Police said some of the bombs were hidden in garbage bins and some were attached to motorcycles. The seven bombs were detonated almost simultaneously.

The first explosion happened in front of the Siang Tueng Foundation on Supasarn Sungsang Road of Hat Yai and it was followed by separate attacks on two local charity organizations, two hotels, a shopping mall and a restaurant in the tourist city of Songkhla Province.

At least nine people were injured and a woman among them was in critical condition, police said.

Police were still checking whether there were attempts to launch more bomb attacks in the southern town.

Soon after the explosions, Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, army chief and chairman of the Council for National Security, downplayed the attacks immediately.

He said he had ordered security agencies concerned, including the Internal Security Operations Command, to control the situation.

He said the bombs were only small ones and did not cause much damage.

"They were only small bombs in milk cans and were aimed to cause little damage," Sonthi said. "Nothing to worry. Officials are in control now. They are analyzing information."

The economy of Hat Yai, Thailand's southern hub of transportation, tourism and culture, has been plagued by violence after more than two dozens of bombs attacked the South, including eight in Hat Yai, on Feb. 18 this year.

A high-ranking executive of Hat Yai's JB hotel, which was attacked on Sunday, told Xinhua earlier that the hotel's tourist number has declined by 50 percent after the Feb. 18 attacks.

Over the past three-and-a-half years, more than 2,100 people have died in the violence which plagued Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala. The violence sometimes also spread to nearby province of Songkhla.

(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2007)