105 Die as Bomb Rips Sri Lanka Bus Station : More Than 200 Hurt as Blast Shakes Capital at Rush Hour; Officials Blame Tamil Rebels

A powerful bomb ripped through Colombo’s central bus terminal at the height of the evening rush hour Tuesday, killing 105 people and injuring more than 200, officials in the Sri Lankan capital reported.

No group or individual immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, the third attack since Friday on this lush island just south of India. However, officials blamed Tamil insurgents who have waged a four-year war against the majority Sinhalese for an independent nation.

The bus station was packed with hundreds of workers heading home from jobs in downtown Colombo, and thousands of people were on the streets when the bomb, packed with more than 100 pounds of explosives, went off at 4:58 p.m., officials said.

Fire Claims Many Victims

Witnesses said several passing motorists were burned to death after they were trapped inside their cars by the intense blaze touched off by the explosion, and the flames also killed several commuters waiting for buses home.

Some victims were killed by the force of the blast, witnesses said, while others were crushed to death as thousands of commuters stampeded to escape the flames and smoke.

“We saw an orange-colored ball of fire rise into the sky,” said R. L. Basanayake, 27. “I was watching two little girls jostling each other to get into a bus to Negombo. A few minutes later, there was the blast. Bodies were thrown in all directions. The bus caught fire, and I heard screams.”

Authorities said that the bomb, triggered by a timer or a remote-control device, was apparently planted in a van parked outside a Bank of Ceylon branch office at the terminal. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that a security guard tried to prevent two men from parking the vehicle outside the bank but relented when the men promised to return shortly to move their van.

Another bomb found outside the Colombo Gas Co. offices, about 50 yards from the terminal, was detonated harmlessly by army bomb disposal experts.

Most of the bodies of the victims were unidentifiable, and an accurate count of the dead was not immediately possible.

More than 200 people were reported hospitalized, many with serious injuries, and doctors feared that the death toll would rise.

The government issued a statement blaming two Tamil separatist groups, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students, for the bombing.

In the southern Indian city of Madras, where the Tamil groups have exile headquarters, a spokesman for the Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students denied its members were involved.

“We have never targeted our attacks at civilians,” the spokesman, Velupillai Balakumaran, said.

Lawrence Thilakar, spokesman for the Liberation Tigers, said in Madras that he would have no comment until he was able to talk with the group’s commanders in Sri Lanka.

Bus Massacre

The latest surge of violence began Friday, when Tamil guerrillas killed 127 civilians, mostly Sinhalese, after dragging them from buses and other vehicles on a jungle road 10 miles outside the northeastern village of Vannela.

Sunday night, Tamil guerrillas burst into four houses in Vannela, a Sinhalese settlement, tied up 15 villagers and shot them to death. Earlier reports said 18 were killed.

Authorities sealed off the area around the bus terminal, and security forces were deployed throughout the city.

Officials imposed a curfew, which they said would be lifted for four hours this morning. Government offices, banks, and private companies were ordered closed today.

Two air force helicopters equipped with searchlights were deployed Tuesday night to patrol the surrounding areas in case of a backlash against Tamils.

The Press Trust of India, quoting the Sri Lankan national news agency, said that “hoods and thugs” attacked and looted shops owned by Tamils after the blast. An unconfirmed report said one Tamil was stabbed to death, the Press Trust said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said the bombing indicates that there are groups in Sri Lanka “who refuse to negotiate and who wish to see the government’s peace efforts fail.”

When the first firemen and police and army personnel arrived on the scene of the bombing, many of the injured had already been taken to Colombo General Hospital in private vehicles.

Ajith Lalana, 19, a vegetable seller at the Manning Market opposite the bus terminal, was one of the first people to reach the scene and dragged eight bodies from under a car.

“I saw four people burning alive inside a car,” he said.

Army and navy troops and police officers battled to keep crowds of onlookers under control as firemen and rescue workers frantically dug for bodies in the rubble of the terminal building. A heavy downpour that began about 45 minutes after the blast helped douse the flames but hampered rescue operations.

The blast left more than 30,000 people stranded because bus service was indefinitely suspended.