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BANGKOK, Saturday (Reuters) The Thai army said on Saturday it had killed 13 drug traffickers and seized 1.6 million metamphetamines during a shootout in northern Thailand.

An army source told reporters Thai soldiers ambushed around 30 hilltribe people late on Friday night in a small town near the Myanmar border in Chiang Mai province, 700 km north of Bangkok.

He said the army had received a tip-off that 20 million metamphetamine pills were due in Chiang Mai province this weekend.

One Thai soldier was also killed during the attack. Several people in the ambushed group fled towards the Myanmar border pursued by Thai soldiers, the army source said.

In recent years, production of metamphetamines has mushroomed in the Golden Triangle area where the Myanmar, Laos and Thai borders meet. The Thai army estimates over 700 million pills flow into Thailand through its porous border with Myanmar each year.

Myanmar is also the world's biggest producer of opium, the raw material for heroin. 

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