Colombo: At least 26 people were killed and 64 injured today when suspected LTTE rebels blew up a bus packed with school children as a series of clashes left another 17 dead in Sri Lanka, where the government formally ended a tattered ceasefire with the guerrillas.

The deadly bus bombing took place in Buttala, about 240 kms southeast of the Capital Colombo. The roadside claymore mine "targeting the bus exploded at 7.40 am (local time)," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said, adding it was followed by another explosion.

One survivor told the Defence Ministry officials that the militants "remorselessly shot" at people who were jumping out of the bus following the blast. An armoured military vehicle was damaged in the second blast in the same area in which three soldiers were injured, Nanayakkara said.

President Mahinda Rajapakse said the bomb attack was a "brazen" demonstration of the LTTE's "commitment to terrorism" which was apparently carried out to coincide with the abrogation of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement with the rebels.

"This is a brazen demonstration to the whole world of its (LTTE) unchanged commitment to terrorism and the absolute rejection of democracy and all norms of civilised behaviour, in the pursuit of its unacceptable goal of separation, which threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka," Rajapakse said in a statement.

The President expressed condolence to the families of those killed in the attack and urged citizens to remain calm and vigilant in the face of provocation by "terrorists".

Source : PTI