Thai policeman and Muslim militants killed in gunfight

PATTANI, Thailand (Reuters) - A Thai policeman and two suspected Muslim militants died in a five-hour standoff at a separatist hideout in southern Thailand late on Friday, police said.

The two killed Muslims refused to surrender to about 100 government security personnel laying siege to their hideout in Pattani, one of three southern provinces facing a four-year separatist insurgency, they said.

Government forces surrounded the house after its two heavily armed occupants shot at a police squad attempting to search the place, killing an officer and wounding four.

Over 3,000 people, including government officials, Muslim and Buddhist civilians, have been killed in the separatist insurgency in the Muslim-majority provinces near Malaysia.

On Saturday, about 500 Muslim students gathered for prayers at a mosque in nearby Yala province to mark the anniversary of the Tak Bai incident in 2004 when 78 Muslim militants died from suffocation after they were tied-up and forced to stack up six deep on crowded army trucks for hours.

Their death was a major spark of subsequent increased Muslim militancy in southern Thailand.

(Writing by Vithoon Amorn; Editing by David Fox)