(Updates death toll, schools closed)

BANGKOK, June 11 (Reuters) - Three Buddhist teachers were shot dead in two separate attacks in Thailand's Muslim-majority south on Monday, prompting 130 schools to close for fear of further attacks, officials said.

Gunmen shot two female teachers in a government school in Narathiwat, one of three provinces caught up in three years of Muslim separatist unrest in which more than 2,300 people have been killed, police said.

"They got off a motorcycle, walked into the school and killed the teachers in the library while others went out for lunch," a police investigator told Reuters by telephone from the scene.

Police found 11 bullet casings from two pistols near the victims, who were in their 20s and 40s. They had multiple gunshot wounds to the head and torso, he said.

In a nearby district, six men on motorcycles and armed with AK-47 rifles killed a 54-year-old male teacher driving in his car, a police report said.

Education officials immediately ordered 130 schools in the two troubled districts of Narathiwat to close.

"We are afraid of more attacks on teachers," education ministry official Pairach Saengthong told Reuters. "How could there be more classes after such an audacious attack?"

Militants have frequently torched schools and shot teachers -- seen as symbols of the largely Buddhist government -- in the Malay-speaking region which was annexed by Bangkok a century ago.

The daily killings and bombings by secretive militants have increased steadily despite the presence of 30,000 troops and police.

Since taking office in October, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has fought off pressure from Thailand's Buddhist majority to take stronger action, saying he remains committed to a peaceful resolution.

He has apologised for the harsh policies of his ousted predecessor, Thaksin Shinawatra, and promised restraint in dealing with the violence. But he has had no more success than Thaksin in dampening the violence.

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