Four dead in Thailand shooting: police

At least four people were killed in a shooting in southern Thailand on Saturday, police said, with local media reporting that officers were still searching for the suspect.

The attack started at about 5 pm (1100 GMT), in Khiri Rat Nikhom district in Surat Thani province -- roughly 600 km (370 miles) south of the capital Bangkok.

"Four people died," local head of police Kriangkrai Kraikaew told AFP, declining to give further details.

The shooting happened near the home of a former village head, local media reported.

Thailand has high rates of gun ownership and there has been a steady trickle of violent incidents in the past 12 months, including one of the deadliest attacks in recent history.

The kingdom was stunned in October after a former police sergeant murdered 36 people, 24 of them children, in the northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province.

And last month, three people were killed and another three wounded in a Phetchaburi province shooting, which ended only after a 15-hour stand-off.