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| Sri Lanka |
| Colombo blast kills 16, wounds 40+ |
| 2007-11-28 |
| COLOMBO (AP) —At least 16 people were killed Wednesday and 40 injured in an explosion in Nugegoda, a southern suburb of the Sri Lanka capital Colombo, police said. There were large crowds on the street after offices had closed when the explosion near a popular clothing store sparked a fire and created panic at the scene. The Defense Ministry said the blast had occurred at 5:50 p.m., but gave no other details. Television stations showed pictures of the fire, ambulances taking the wounded to hospital and police trying to restore order at the scene. First reports said the blast was set off by a woman bomber who had arrived at the scene in a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw, but again there were no further details available. The blast followed an abortive attempt on the life of a Cabinet minister on Wednesday morning when a female suicide bomber blew her herself up outside Social Services and Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananada's political office. The bomber and a ministerial aide died in the explosion. Devananada, who was in the building, was unhurt in the assassination attempt that the government blamed on the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. There have been eight previous attempts on the life of the minister, an ethnic Tamil and an active militant who later joined the political mainstream. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |