Colombo: At least 12 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded on Sunday when an LTTE woman suicide bomber blew herself up at a railway station here on the eve of Sri Lanka's 60th Independence Day, overshadowed by escalated violence following the scrapping of a 2002 ceasefire.
The suspected LTTE woman cadre had travelled on a train and blew herself up at Fort railway station when the security forces personnel were carrying out random checking.
The incident took place at platform no 3, the Defence Ministry said adding 12 people were killed and 100 others injured in the explosion.
The attack came just hours after a grenade explosion at Dehiwala Zoo near Colombo left seven people including two children injured.
However, authorities claimed that within hours normalcy was restored and train service resumed amidst tightening of the security in and around the Railway station with the deployment of additional troops.
According to sources at the Colombo National Hospital, 95 people were undergoing treatment at the hospital.
As many as 10 of the injured are in critical condition, they said. A Defence Official said the recent attacks by LTTE in the south of the country bear clear indications of the outfit's desperation following the army's recent success in the North.
"They also highlight the need of national solidarity at this crucial moment to bring an end this brutal terrorism," an army official said.
The bombings came a day the LTTE detonated a parcel bomb in a bus packed with Buddhist pilgrims killing 18 people and wounding 80 at Dambulla.
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