"There had been an explosion," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. "It was a bomb placed close to an apple vendor in Pettah."
Military officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the blast was triggered by around 100 grammes of explosives placed in a crowded market.
Colombo National Hospital's director, Dr. Hector Weerasinghe, said: "Forty-four people have been admitted to hospital including two children and four women." There were no immediate deaths, he said.
Sri Lanka's government officially scrapped a ceasefire in January and has since intensified a drive to defeat the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the island nation's north.
In recent weeks, the military has increased its attacks and captured rebel-held territory, trying to make good on a pledge to wipe out the Tamil Tigers by the year's end.
The rebels since 1983 have fought a civil war to carve out a homeland in northern Sri Lanka for the ethnic minority Tamil people.
Source: Reuters |
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