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3 killed,47 hurt in Lankan bus blasts

COLOMBO: Three people were killed and at least 47 injured, six seriously, when bombs exploded in two buses, Sri Lankan police said on Wednesday.

They said the blasts, the latest in a series of public transport bombs that have rocked the war-torn nation in the past few weeks, occurred late on Tuesday.

One of the bombs ripped through a public bus in Colombo when it was taking on passengers before leaving for a distant town at midnight, police said. The bus was gutted by fire.

The other blast hit a moving bus at Wattala town just north of the capital.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the blasts but Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which are fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east.

"Government is aware that the aim of the LTTE is not only to eliminate political leaders, but also to bring the functions of the government to a standstill," Ratwatte told parliament.

A police spokesman told Reuters that Colombo's police chief would meet representatives of the public and transport industry on Wednesday to discuss ways of curbing such blasts.

He said no passenger would be allowed to board a bus from the front and that bus drivers, conductors and other supervisors would be trained to identify a potential bomb. The army's bomb-disposal squads would also conduct surprise checks on buses.

"People have to be vigilant. It is for their safety. I find people don't take these things (threats) seriously," military spokesman Brigadier Palitha Fernando said.

Two people were killed and more than 100 injured in bomb blasts in six buses across Sri Lanka before Tuesday's incidents.

The rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1983. More than 55,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

Sri Lanka's deputy defence minister on Wednesday asked parliament to extend the national emergency by a month, saying the recent bomb blasts called for tighter security.

Emergency regulations give the government and security forces power to detain and interrogate people suspected of rebel links.

The government needs parliamentary approval every month to keep the state of emergency in force. -Reuters