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Bus bomb kills 19 in Sri Lankan capital

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-06 16:15

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Police say a bomb explosion on a passenger bus near Sri Lanka's capital has killed at least 19 people and wounded 40 others.

Medical personnel attend to an injured survivor of a bus explosion at a hospital in the Kalubowila suburb of Colombo June 6, 2008. A roadside bomb exploded near a crowded passenger bus in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Friday, killing 21 people and wounding 47, the military said. [Agencies]

Police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara says the blast occurred on a passenger bus Friday in Moratuwa, near Sri Lanka capital Colombo.

He said at least 19 people were killed and 40 others wounded, but that casualties still were being brought to hospitals so that the figures would likely be updated.

The government is battling an insurgency by separatist Tamil rebels that has grown increasingly violent in recent months.