BANGKOK, June 12 (Xinhua): A male elementary teacher was gunned down in Thailand's violence-torn far southern province Narathiwat Monday noon during his lunch break, soon after two female teachers from another school were shot dead in the same province.

The news network The Nation Monday reported that the 50-year-old elementary teacher, Somai Laocharoensuk, was about one kilometer away from his school in Narathiwat's Rangae district, driving his pickup truck, when he was ambushed by a gunman with an AK47 assault rifle.

The shooting took place at about 12:30 p.m (05:30 GMT), and Somai died at the scene of the attack, police said.

Minutes earlier, two female teachers, 26-year-old substitute teacher Yupha Sengwat, and 42-year-old Thipaporn Thansopha, a permanent staff at the Ban Sakor Elementary School in Narathiwat's Srisakorn district, were shot dead by two gunmen.

Police and witnesses were quoted as saying that the two gunmen walked calmly into the teachers' crush-room and sprayed bullets at the two with handguns.

All three victims were teachers at government schools situated in violence-prone communities. It was reported that Thipaporno had applied for a transfer to less violence-affected province Songkhla for safety concern.

Teachers and schools are often targeted in violent attacks which have become a daily occurrence in Thailand's three southenmost provinces - Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani, where more than 2,200 people have died in the region since January 2004.