Schools in Thai far South opened amid tight security

BANGKOK, May 14 (TNA) - Many schools in the violence-plagued Thai far South reopened for the new semester on Tuesday, amid tight security as authorities take special precautions, especially at danger-prone locations. In Yala province, for instance, parents sent their children to Baan Pong Yue Rai School in Mueang district on Tuesday morning, as soldiers and security volunteers guarded the school for public safety; while all schools in the Nakhon Yala Municipality will be opened by May 16. In nearby Narathiwat province, only 50 per cent of 379 schools were opened for the new semester on Tuesday morning, as police, soldiers and local administrators were deployed to protect teachers, using cars and motorcycles to escort teachers between their residences and schools. In Songkhla province, the situation has, meanwhile, remained normal in four districts adjacent to troubled southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, but local security authorities have, particularly, intensified their measures at Banna School in Chana district. (TNA)