Colombo: A suspected Tamil Tiger roadside bomb attack on a civilian bus killed 15 people and wounded dozens in north-central Sri Lanka today, officials said, as a 6-year ceasefire between the state and rebels formally expires.

A hospital official said around 50 people were admitted with injuries. Lakshman Hulugalle, director-general of the Media Centre for National Security, said 15 people died in the attack.

An explosion hit a civilian bus, a bomb squad officer said, asking not to be named in line with policy. The blast in the town of Buttala in the northcentral district of Moneragala, was the latest in a series of roadside bomb attacks blamed on the rebels, who are fighting to create an independent state in the island's north and east.

A 2002 ceasefire, which broke down on the ground two years ago formally ends later today after President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government announced a fortnight ago it was scrapping the pact, triggering fears that the fighting will deepen.

The government argues the rebels simply used the peace pact, which Nordic monitors said the Tigers violated thousands of times, to buy time to regroup and rearm and that they were not sincere about talking peace.

The government, also accused of hundreds of truce violations, has vowed to wipe out the Tigers militarily. Around 70,000 people have been killed since the war erupted in 1983, and the toll climbs daily.

Source : UNI