COLOMBO, Dec 5: At least 15 bus passengers were killed and 38 wounded on Wednesday in a roadside bomb attack in Sri Lanka, police said as the military claimed 36 more people were killed in other violence.

Security forces rushed to the north-central region following the bus attack, a police official in the area said by telephone. He said separatist Tamil Tiger rebels were believed to have carried out the bombing against the civilian bus.

“We have 15 passengers killed and at least another 38 have been taken to hospital,” the official said. “We believe it is the work of the Tigers.” There was no immediate comment from the Tigers who were blamed for a similar bus bombing in the area in June last year when 64 bus passengers were killed.

The blast came hours after the defence ministry said a total of 29 Tiger rebels and seven soldiers had been killed in fresh violence in the island’s embattled northern regions.

Wednesday’s attack was at Abhimanapura, a village some 265 kilometres northeast of the capital Colombo and away from the area where troops and Tamil Tiger rebels are locked in combat, police said. The defence ministry in a statement accused the Tigers of carrying out the powerful bomb attack against the civilian bus.

“The terrorists have detonated a roadside bomb at Abhimanapura, on the Kebithigollawa-Padaviya road,” the ministry said, adding that the bus had been deliberately targeted.

The attack against the bus came a week after Tamil Tiger rebels were held responsible for two bomb attacks that killed at least 21 people in Colombo.—AFP