COLOMBO, Oct 16: Sri Lanka suffered its worst suicide attack on Monday when Tiger rebels blew up an explosives-laden truck next to a convoy of sailors, killing at least 103 people and wounding 150 more, police said.

The Sri Lankan military retaliated with air strikes deep inside the territory held by the Tigers, the rebels said as the defence ministry claimed one war plane crashed into a lagoon near here on Monday evening during a ‘training mission’.

The government said the ‘barbaric’ suicide attack, which coincided with heightened international efforts to restore a 2002 truce, meant the Tamil Tiger guerrillas were not interested in talks scheduled to take place next week in Switzerland.

The bombing occurred about 170 kilometres northeast of Colombo at a transit point in the restive district of Trincomalee for security personnel coming to and from the front line of the drawn-out conflict.

Only the chassis of the truck remained amidst more than a dozen buses parked in an open field where 340 sailors were waiting to leave for their destinations, officials said.

Rescue workers made a pile of automatic assault rifles and hard helmets of sailors who perished. The windows of buses parked there smashed.

The fate of dozens of civilian traders selling tea and sweets to the security personnel was not immediately known, police said, adding that several civilians might have also died.

The government in a statement expressed ‘deep shock’ over the bombing.—AFP