Five dead in Sri Lanka suicide bomb blast-police
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-07 15:06

At least five people were killed and 11 wounded when a woman blew herself up in a police station in the Sri Lankan capital on Wednesday in the first such attack since a truce signed two years ago with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Police said the woman detonated an explosive device while she was being frisked on her way into the station, which lies on Colombo's main thoroughfare, near the prime minister's official residence and across the road from the U.S. and British embassies.

"About five people have died inside the police station," said one police officer. A total of 11 were wounded, police said.

Peace talks to end Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war have been on hold for more than a year but both sides have been observing the Norwegian-brokered truce signed in February 2002 that put an end to fighting that had killed 64,000.

Broken glass and blood covered the floor of the police station, which was under heavy guard, witnesses said.

"I saw many people being pulled out with injuries, including one with no arm," said one witness.

The director of Colombo's National Hospital said 13 people had been brought in for treatment, of whom four had died.

"We have not been informed of any more people coming. These people here are not critical," Hector Weerasinghe told Reuters of the nine wounded being treated in his hospital. Six were police officers, he said.

Local radio said four of the five dead were police officers.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorized the capital with numerous suicide bomb attacks during the war and on Monday they marked their "Black Tiger Day," which commemorates their suicide bombers.

The rebels had no immediate comment on the blast.

Television said the target of the attack was Douglas Devananda, a cabinet minister who belongs to a rival Tamil party and whose office was next door to the police station.

The woman was brought from Devananda's office into the police station, it said.

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