BANGKOK, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Two police officers were injured by an explosive allegedly placed by suspected separatists in southern Thailand on Tuesday, police said.

The 50-kilogram bomb, contained in two gas tanks aboard a parked pickup truck on the road outside the base of a Border Patrol Police task force in Thepha district of Songkhla province, went off at about 5 a.m. local time on Tuesday, said deputy police inspector Pol. Lt. Col. Chanon Nualnim.

Shortly after the bombing, the police found the owner of the pickup truck, identified as Amata Samotharnthawee who was a retired teacher, hanged in his own home in Saba Yoi district of the southern province, according to the deputy police inspector.

Unknown members of a separatist movement in the Deep South were believed to have robbed the teacher of his truck for use in the bombing and murdered him, Pol. Lt. Col. Chanon said.