Sri Lankan protestor shot dead at tainted water demonstration

Sri Lankan security forces shot dead one protester and wounded dozens more when they fired on villagers at a demonstration over contaminated drinking water, police and residents said Friday. Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said the army had been called in on Thursday night to assist the police when a mob threw petrol bombs and tried to attack a police station near the capital Colombo.
Locals in the village of Weliweriya, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north-east of Colombo, had been protesting against a rubber-glove making plant that they say has polluted their ground water supply. Police said one man was killed and 37 others were wounded in the night-time clashes in Weliweriya while the military said nine of their troops also received injuries from petrol bombs.