ANURADHAPURA(Sri Lanka), June 15: Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed 64 people in a mine attack on a bus in Sri Lanka on Thursday, the worst violence since a 2002 truce, prompting a wave of air strikes on rebel positions.

The government said the rebels detonated two claymore mines placed side by side, spraying the packed bus with ball bearings on an isolated road near rebel-held territory.

At the hospital in the north central town of Anuradhapura, people mourned the loss of entire families.

“The bus was blown over,” 37-year-old survivor Chintha Irangani told Reuters. She was taking her three children to a clinic by the bus and all of them died.

A Reuters Television cameraman said the road beside the overturned bus was covered with glass and blood. In the hospital, he saw torn and burned corpses, including many women and children. Officials said 13 children were among the dead.

Most on the bus were from the island’s majority Sinhalese community. The government said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) wanted to provoke an ethnic backlash against minority Tamils to support their demands for a separate Tamil homeland.

“We have to seriously consider the ceasefire agreement and possibly restructure it,” government spokesman Kehilya Rambukwella told a news conference.

President Mahinda Rajapakse travelled to Anuradhapura after the attack to visit the victims. Officials said he made a brief statement saying the government was still committed to peace.—Reuters