20 Reported Killed in Sri Lanka Jet Blast
At least 20 people were reported killed Saturday in an explosion that blasted apart an Air Lanka jetliner carrying French tourists after it landed at the city’s international airport, authorities said.
The cause of the explosion was not known. Authorities said they suspect Tamils, an ethnic group who have waged a bloody campaign for an independent state on the island off the southeastern Indian coast.
The Lockheed TriStar L-1011, which arrived from Paris with 128 people aboard, had finished taxiing down the runway at Colombo’s Katunayaka airport and passengers were beginning to leave when an explosion occurred in the rear of the plane, authorities said.
No further details were immediately available. Officials said most of the passengers aboard were believed to be French tourists bound for vacations on the neighboring Maldives Islands.
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