A roadside bomb ripped through a Sri Lankan bus killing 26 people and wounding dozens on Wednesday, officials said, as a six-year ceasefire between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels officially expired.
The Ministry of Defence said a large number of schoolchildren were on the bus at the time of the blast in the central district of Moneragala, around 150 miles (240 km) east of the capital Colombo. Hospital officials said they were treating seven children for minor injuries while a 14-year-old girl who suffered a head wound was flown to Colombo and was in intensive care. They said no children were killed.
Schools in the surrounding province of Uva were temporarily closed following the attack, which the military blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"This is a brazen demonstration to the whole world of (the Tigers') unchanged commitment to terrorism and the absolute rejection of democracy and all norms of civilised behaviour, in the pursuit of its unacceptable goal of separation, which threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka," President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in a statement.
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