A Canadian was killed in Thailand on Saturday in a series of simultaneous bomb blasts in a busy tourist shopping street, Canada's Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed.

Rodney Moore, spokesman for the ministry, told reporters in Ottawa that Canadian officials were aware that a Canadian had died in the Thai blasts, but he declined to disclose the victim's name, citing privacy laws.

Thai police later identified the deceased Canadian as Jessie Lee Daniel, 35, whose home town was not immediately known.

Two Thai nationals, a man and a woman, were also killed when the bombs went off in the town of Hat Yai, the main commercial and shopping center in southern Thailand.

Early reports indicated that a fourth person might have also been killed, while about 68 others were wounded. The wounded were believed to include two Malaysians, a Singaporean and two unidentified Westerners.

The blasts happened when separatists detonated a series of remote control bombs hidden inside six motorcycles parked in the center of the town's shopping and hotel district.

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2006)