Fifteen killed, 32 injured in Sri Lanka bus blast

Jan 6, 2007, 20:44 GMT

Colombo - A bomb exploded inside a bus at a tourist destination in southern Sri Lanka Saturday afternoon killing 15 passengers and injuring 32 others, police said.

The explosion took place in Hikkaduwa, 100 kilometres south of the capital Colombo. The bus was travelling from Colombo to the southern town of Matara.

All those killed and injured were locals and no tourists were affected, police said.

The incident was the second such explosion since Friday.

Six people were killed Friday and over 50 were injured when a bomb exploded inside a passenger bus at Nittambuwa, 27 kilometres east of Colombo.

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said that the military believed that the Tamil rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were involved in both incidents.

'The LTTE is responsible for these attacks as they are taking a beating in the eastern province by the army offensives,' he said.

But rebel military spokesman Rasiaha Illanthiriyan denied the allegation and said they condemned the bombing.

Police said that there was a woman's body inside the bus caught in Saturday's blast which had been badly burnt amidst suspicion that the woman was carrying the explosives.

'We are not sure whether it was a woman suicide bomber. We are investigating,' a police officer in the area said.

The government condemned the two incidents saying that the LTTE was attempting to divert attention from the continuous defeats they had been suffering at the hands of the security forces during the recent past.

'The government reiterates that terror attacks will not deter its efforts to find a peaceful solution to the national problem (ethnic conflict) or its ... measures to defeat terrorism'.

The government has decided to step up security in bus and train stations and all passengers have been advised to insist that the drivers and conductors of the buses check all parcels being carried by passengers.

During the last year more than 3,000 have been killed in clashes between the military and rebels and other related incidents.

Earlier this week at least 15 civilians were killed in an air raid carried out by the air force in the north-western part of the country.

The military had said they had bombed a rebel base, but a Catholic bishop in the area said the dead were civilians.