Bombs Kill 32 In Sri Lanka Capital 300 More Injured By Blasts; Officials Blame Rebel Tigers

A bus packed with at least two shrapnel-laden bombs exploded Thursday outside a crowded train station in the Sri Lankan capital, killing at least 32 people and injuring more than 300.

The defense ministry said senior government officials were the target, but the bombs went off prematurely. The government blamed rebels seeking an independent homeland for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority.

The bus blew apart at one of the city’s busiest intersections, shredding vehicles and ripping facades from buildings. The dead included at least three children from schools in the area and two police officers.

School books, a plastic lunch box and children’s shoes were scattered around the site, littered among the twisted hulks of cars and trucks. The bus driver - believed to be a suicide bomber - was among the dead.

“This was not a conventional bomb,” Defense Ministry spokesman Sarath Munasinghe said, saying the bombs had been carefully positioned on both sides of the bus “so that when they explode, it would kill people around.”

If the bus had gone much farther, it would have reached the route normally taken by government ministers to attend Parliament, Munasinghe said.

The bus’s driver had run a stop sign at a police checkpoint about noon, prompting police to give chase. A police woman who moved into its way to try to stop it was “mowed down,” the spokesman said.

In the aftermath of the blast, hundreds of injured were rushed to Colombo’s main hospital. Weeping parents hurried to the devastated neighborhood to try to find their children.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but police Superintendent Palitha Perera said “it definitely looks like the work of the Tigers,” referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Tamils, who make up 18 percent of the population of 18 million, claim they are discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese, who control the government and military.

The rebels have suffered reverses on the battlefield in recent months. Although most of the fighting in Sri Lanka’s civil war has been in the northeast Tamil heartland, the separatists have made several daring attacks in the south, including bombings in the capital and major cities.

More than 51,000 people have been killed since the war began in 1983.

On Thursday, phone lines in the capital were jammed as residents sought information and tried to account for loved ones.

One parent, Lokuarachchige Sriyawathie, said he had gone to the area to pick up his son from school.

“Just as we got to the school gate, there was a huge explosion and I was knocked down by the blast,” he said. Flying glass hit him in the arm and face.

The front of the railroad station was badly damaged, and a police station slightly damaged. At least 40 vehicles on the streets were destroyed and about 50 nearby shops were damaged.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed outrage at the attack on civilians.

“Terrorism cannot be condoned in any circumstances,” said Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard.