Updated at 3:45 a.m., Sunday, February 3, 2008
Suicide bomber kills at least 6 in Sri Lanka station
Associated Press
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A female suicide bomber blew herself up at the main railway station in the Sri Lankan capital Sunday, killing six people and wounding 95 others, the military and a hospital official said."It is a suicide blast on Platform 3. The bomber has got down from a train and exploded," military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
Six travelers were killed in the blast, Nanayakkara said.
Pushpa Soysa, a nurse at Colombo National Hospital, said 95 wounded people were taken to the hospital.
"I was near my counter and I heard a big blast. When I looked behind I saw a policeman bleeding," said Ravindra Pinto, a ticket inspector at the station.
"As I took him and rushed out, I saw many men and women on the ground," said Pinto, who was not wounded.
A bomb on a bus Saturday killed 18 people, mostly Buddhist pilgrims, in the central town of Dambulla, about 90 miles northeast of Colombo.
Earlier Sunday, a grenade exploded at a zoo on the outskirts of Colombo, wounding at least four people.
More than 700 people have been killed in intensified violence since the government withdrew from a cease-fire with the separatist Tamil guerrillas last month. Civilians have borne the brunt of the violence.
