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BANGKOK, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A bomb blast rocked a hotel in southern Thailand, the latest in a spate of arson and bomb attacks in the mainly Muslim region, but no one was hurt, police said on Wednesday.

The attack followed warnings from several Western governments to their citizens about travel in the region, including some southern parts of mostly Buddhist Thailand, in the wake of the October 12 blasts on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali.

The bomb, hidden in a stolen motorcycle, exploded just before midnight on Tuesday in the car park of My Garden Hotel in Pattani province, 1,400 km (875 miles) south of Bangkok, police said.

It shattered windows in the hotel and destroyed several vehicles.

"We think it was the work of the same group of people who carried out the other incidents here and in Songkhla province," said a a Pattani police spokesman.

"It was obviously not intended to hurt people but was aimed at making political noise," he said.

Five schools were hit by arson attacks and a small bomb exploded at a Buddhist temple in Muslim majority southern Thailand earlier on Tuesday in incidents described by the government as attempts to create political instability.

Bomb threats were also made against five railway stations in southern Narathiwat province the same day, local media reported.

No one was injured in any of the incidents that occured in a region with a history of political violence and some support for Islamic separatism.

"SIGNIFICANT THREATS"

Australia and Britain have told their citizens travelling in Southeast Asia to be more vigilant after the Bali bomb attacks that killed more than 180, most of them foreign tourists.

Britain issued its latest warning on Tuesday, saying threats to Westerners on the southern Thai resort island of Phuket had increased sharply. Denmark last week also singled out Phuket as a potential target for an attack.

"The threat to British nationals in Thailand, including popular tourist areas, the island of Phuket in particular, has increased significantly," the British warning said.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday dismissed the attacks in the south as non-political acts by "criminals".

Thaksin said he believed a single, unidentified group was behind the attacks and he had ordered police to hunt them down "dead or alive".

He has repeatedly said there are no terrorists in Thailand.

The Pattani hotel blast came just a few hours after Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Noor Matha inspected the area in the wake of the attacks earlier the same day.

Wan Muhamad said the government had stepped up security at various tourist resorts and pledged to take tough action against those responsible for the arson and bomb attacks.

Defence Minister Thamarak Isaragura also denied the attacks were terrorist acts. He said he believed the attacks were by Muslim bandits taking revenge for a recent court decision to sentence several of their colleagues to long jail terms. 

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