Unknown number of gunmen had opened fire Sunday morning at a group of paramilitary rangers on patrol in a southernmost province of Yala before a ten-minute gunfight was triggered.

Initially, one ranger was reportedly dead while six others were injured and later admitted to a local hospital in Bannang-sta district, Yala province.

According to local authorities, at least two insurgents were wounded while exchanging fire but all gunmen eventually managed to escape in the wood.

A combined force of military and police is currently hunting down those perpetrators.

More than 4,100 people have been killed in over six years of separatist turmoil in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat southern provinces that were once an independent sultanate of Pattani which was annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand in 1909. No credible group has claimed responsibility for the violence or announced any demands.