- Tamil guerrilla suspected in deadly Sri Lanka
blast
- March 5, 1998
- Web posted at: 10:19 a.m. EST
(1519 GMT)
- COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- A
suspected Tamil guerrilla set off a powerful bus
bomb Thursday that killed at least 30 people and
injured 256 in the Sri Lankan capital, a defense
spokesman said.
A Defense Ministry statement said "a suicide
killer of the LTTE (the Tamil rebel group) had
driven a mini-bus with explosives without
passengers and exploded it at Maradana," an
area with numerous shops, a busy railway station
and one of the Sri Lankan capital's larger police
stations.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the
explosion.
The bomb exploded on a main street as hundreds of
vehicles were locked in bumper-to-bumper traffic,
blowing the bus to pieces and damaging more than
40 vehicles, witnesses said.
Police were chasing bus after accident
- A police officer told Reuters the
26-seater bus had been in an accident in the area
and police were chasing it when the explosion
occurred. Motorist G.T. Pushpakumara, traveling
about six vehicles behind, said the bus struck a
jeep but did not stop.
"I was on my motorcycle trying to get the
bus to stop when it exploded," said
policeman N.R. Perera.
"A policeman was trying to open the door of
the bus when there was a flash. I was thrown
away," said Mohammed Mansoor, whose shop and
several others were hit by the blast.
All that remained of the bus was a smoking
chassis. Strewn around nearby were the mangled
remains of some 30 other vehicles. Other vehicles
suffered less damage.
At least three children from two area schools and
two police officers were among the dead.
Health minister urges calm
- Hundreds of parents rushed to
bring their children home from nearby schools
after the explosion. Phone lines in Colombo were
jammed as residents sought information about the
incident.
Urging residents to stay calm, Health Minister
Nimal Sripala de Silva told a private radio
station that several of the wounded had only
minor injuries and were treated and sent home.
Tamil rebels blamed for several
bombings
- The explosion comes a month after
a suspected Tamil Tiger woman suicide bomber blew
herself up with explosives in the capital,
killing nine people.
Last October a truck bomb exploded in the car
park of a five-star hotel in Colombo's business
district, killing 18 people and injuring more
than a 100.
The deadliest attack on Colombo came in 1996,
when a Tamil rebel suicide-bomber crashed a truck
into the Central Bank, killing 88 people,
wounding 1,400 and destroying eight buildings in
the business district.
The military is on a 10-month campaign to wrest
control of a strategic northern highway from the
rebels. Thousands of guerrillas and soldiers have
been killed since the offensive began in May
1997.
Tamils, who make up 18 percent of the population
of 18 million, claim they are discriminated
against by the majority Sinhalese, who control
the government and military.
The Tamil rebels have been fighting for a
separate homeland for minority Tamils in Sri
Lanka's north and east since 1983. More than
51,000 people have been killed since the fighting
began.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed
to this report.
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