9 dead,95 wounded in Colombo blast

Seven police personnel and two civilians were killed and some 95 wounded when a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a police bus in the heart of the busy Sri Lankan capital at midday Friday. The attack occurred close to Hotel Hilton, opposite a Buddhist temple known as Sambodhi Vihar and also not far from the heavily guarded office of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkar told IANS that the dead included seven police personnel, three of them women, and two civilians who were passing by.

“An LTTE suicide cadre riding a motorcycle rammed onto a police bus carrying anti-riot squad police personnel,” Nanayakkara said. The military blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the attack.