At least 31 people were killed in a gun and bomb attack on a civilian bus in southern Sri Lanka yesterday as the Government officially withdrew from a six-year ceasefire agreement with the Tamil Tigers.

Sri Lankan officials blamed the attack on the Tigers, while the Nordic team that has been monitoring the truce left the country, warning both sides that there was no military solution to their 25-year conflict.

Witnesses said that a Claymore mine blew in the windows of the bus as it passed through Okkampitiya, a town 150 miles (240km) southeast of Colombo, the capital, and gunmen opened fire on the fleeing passengers.

“Everyone that got out through the doors they shot and killed,” said a 25-year-old passenger, who gave his name as Sampath. “I jumped from the window and just escaped.”

The attack injured 53 other people and the assailants shot dead five more as they retreated through the surrounding jungle and farmland, according to Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman.

“They are desperate,” he told The Times from Colombo. “That is why they are resorting to attacking civilians. They are also trying to draw our attention away from their strongholds in the north.”

Among the 72 ethnic Sinhalese people on the bus were four children, all of whom were being treated for minor injuries, according to hospital officials. The Government appealed for blood donors and ordered schools in the province to close for three days.

The Tigers, who have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983, could not be reached immediately for comment.

The group, which is listed as a terror organisation by the United States and the European Union, usually denies responsibility for such attacks, saying that it targets only military personnel.

A second blast yesterday was aimed at an army armoured personnel carrier 12 miles south of the first attack, injuring three soldiers, according to the military.

The attacks came on the final day of a ceasefire agreement, which was brokered by Norway in 2002 but started to unravel in 2005 after both sides had regrouped and rearmed.

President Rajapaksa, who won an election in 2005 promising a harder line against the Tigers, condemned the attack and called for calm.

Return to conflict

2002 Norwegian mediation produces ceasefire between Government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

2004 Despite intermittent fighting, hopes of ceasefire re-emerge after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami

2005 November Hardline anti-Tiger Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa elected President. Ceasefire monitors caution of effective return of war

2006 January The two sides meet, renew their agreement to call a ceasefire and agree to talks

2006 April Tigers accused of suicide- bomb assassination of Sri Lankan army commander. They accuse Government of breaking truce and inciting violence

2006 October Two sides meet again but talks fail. Tigers’ bombing raid on airport; Government accused of ethnic cleansing for transporting Tamils out of Colombo

2007 November S. P. Thamilselvan, political leader of the Tigers, killed in air force raid

2008 January 1 T. Maheswaran, leading opposition MP, shot dead in a Hindu temple in Colombo, prompting Government to annul ceasefire

2008 January 8 D. M. Dassanayake, Construction Minister, killed by a roadside bomb near Colombo

Source: Times archives

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge