PHUKET: One Rohingya man is dead and two others are feared likely to become fatalities after a pickup overturned in mysterious circumstances in a Thai province close to the border with Malaysia yesterday.

Phuketwan has confirmed that the pickup overturned near Sadao, in Songkhla province, about 4.30pm, with paramedics carrying eight people to hospital, along with one body.

''Two of the injured have serious head injuries and probably won't survive,'' a contact in Sadao told a reporter.

The Superintendent of Khlong Nae Police Station, Colonel Worachat Rosjan, confirmed the crash and said the injured had been recorded as ''Burmese Muslims.''

Local Muslims said the dead and injured were Rohingya.

''We suspect that there were two pickups and they were being taken by smugglers towards the border with Malaysia when the crash took place,'' the reporter was told.

''The driver of the pickup and probably some of the survivors of the crash were most likely taken off in the other pickup.''

Thousands of stateless Rohingya are being smuggled by boat from Burma to secret camps along Thailand's southern border where traffickers extort cash from family or friends before transporting them to Malaysia.