COLOMBO, Jan 6: Eleven people were killed and 47 wounded on Saturday when a suspected female suicide bomber blew up a bus in Sri Lanka, the second deadly bus attack in two days, police said. The suicide bomber was believed to have detonated explosives that she carried onboard the crowded vehicle, which was travelling along a tourist strip in southern Sri Lanka, police said.

“We suspect it was a suicide bombing,” police inspector Upul Ariyaratne said from his regional headquarters at Ambalangoda, 85 kilometres south of Colombo, close to where the bus was blown up.

The defence ministry revised the number of people killed down to 11, although local police told reporters that 15 passengers had died. The ministry also revises the number of injured from 40 up to 47.

The attack followed a bus blast late on Friday when six passengers were killed and another 70 wounded near Colombo.

Authorities blamed both attacks on the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is fighting for an independent Tamil homeland.

The defence ministry in a statement said it was committed to fighting terror.

“At a moment when the security forces are successfully carrying out counter terrorist measures to restore civil administration in the North and East, the LTTE has resorted to engage in terror attacks in the south in a bid to disrupt normalcy,” the ministry said.

The Tamil Tigers denied involvement in the blasts.

“The government of Sri Lanka is trying to blame the LTTE for the two bomb blasts,” said LTTE defence spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan in a statement.

“This is a baseless allegation made without any evidence to support it”.

In Saturday's blast, 60 passengers were in the bus which was driving along the tourist stretch between Ambalangoda and Hikkaduwa when the bomb went off.

The bus was travelling from the capital Colombo to Matara, a distance of 160 kilometres.

The route was immediately cordoned off by heavily armed troops. There were no reports of other vehicles or tourists getting caught up in the attack.

In Friday's blast, a two-kilogram (4.4-pound) time bomb was fixed to a seat in the bus, which burst into flames following the explosion.

The bombs came after four days of government air raids against rebel positions in the north.

“We urge civilians to maintain maximum vigilance and cooperate with the authorities to prevent such attacks,” said military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe.

Police said they arrested three suspected Tiger rebels in the area three days earlier on suspicion that they were trying to create trouble.—AFP