COLOMBO: A Buddhist priest was shot dead on Sunday morning in his temple in the volatile eastern Trincomalee district, the defence ministry said.

The Monk Handungamuwe Nandarathana was shot at by three unidentified motor bike riding gunmen who fled soon after carrying out the attack, officials said.

“The assassins came on a motorcycle to the Buddhist temple, called the chief priest out and fired at him”, a police official said.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Tiger rebels in a statement on the prorebel website Tamil Net claimed the Buddhist priest was a rebel sympathiser and displayed a photograph of the monk participating in a LTTE ceremony in the Trincomalee district held two years ago. Separate reports also said the monk had been with the government military before he renounced the world to become a Buddhist priest.

The killing is the latest in a string of un-investigated assassinations carried out by gunmen in Sri Lanka’s war ravaged north and east.