A car bomb was detonated in front of a shopping center in southern Thailand on Tuesday, wounding more than 50 people, authorities said.

The first bomb exploded in the parking lot, followed by a much larger bomb that destroyed the front of a Big-C supermarket in the city of Pattani. Video footage showed scattered debris and a black plume of smoke rising from the shopping center. 

More than 50 people were wounded, several seriously.

No group has claimed the attack. However, authorities said they suspected Muslim insurgents to have carried it out.

Insurgents have fought a decades-long ethnic and religious separatist struggle in Thailand's three southernmost provinces, where there is a Muslim and ethnic Malay majority in the predominantly Buddhist country.

More than 6,500 people have died in the conflict since 2004.

One of the main insurgent groups, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), recently called for a peace dialogue, but the Thai junta government turned down the insurgent's demand for international mediation and observers. It also said it would not negotiate with terrorists.

cw/kms (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)