NARATHIWAT - An 18-year-old Indonesian religious student was stabbed to death at a mosque in the restive Thai south on Thursday, police said.

The victim was knifed seven times while he slept in the mosque in Sungai Kolok, a border town in Narathiwat province. Six other students were sleeping nearby but nobody else was harmed in the attack, police said.

The initial investigation suggested the attacked was linked to a personal quarrel with local teenagers, rather than the insurgency that has gripped the Muslim-majority southernmost provinces of Thailand for six years.

More than 4,100 people -- both Buddhists and Muslims -- have been killed during the rebellion, which is led by shadowy Islamic separatist militants.

BDST: 13:22 HRS, 1 July, 2010