Fifteen local employees of a French aid agency were killed during fierce fighting between rebels and the Government in northeast Sri Lanka.

The bodies of 11 men and four women, all working for the Paris-based charity Action Against Hunger (ACF), were found shot dead in an aid agency office in the seaside town of Muttur.

They had been working to rebuild the area after the devastation of the tsunami in December 2004, as well as helping people affected by the violence in the country.

The French aid agency said today that it has suspended its operations in Sri Lanka following the killings.

Denis Metzger, the president of the agency, said: "The humanitarian values that are defended and promoted everywhere by Action Against Hunger - neutrality, impartiality, free access to victims, independence - have been scorned."

At least 900 Sri Lankans have been killed in violence since December. Serious ground fighting broke out when rebels took control of the Maavilaru reservoir and closed its sluice gates, cutting off water to government-held villages.

The Sri Lankan government said it will give the investigation into the deaths “very high priority”.

Mahinda Samarasinghe, Human Rights Minister, said: “We can’t come to conclusions right now but if the story is correct, it will be a very high priority investigation. I can assure a clean and an independent investigation."

The minister said he was working with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to try and get access to Muttur to be able to evacuate the wounded and clear corpses.

“We still have not been able to have access to Muttur,” Sukumar Rockwood, an ICRC spokesman told the French news agency AFP.

“We have asked for guarantees of safety for our staff from both sides and we are still awaiting a response."

He said a priority for the ICRC would be to evacuate the wounded and remove unclaimed bodies.

The ICRC estimates that about 50,000 people from Muttur and neighbouring areas have fled amid the growing violence.

Separately, an anti-terrorism officer has been killed in an attack by rebels.

The country’s Inspector General of Police, Chandra Fernando told AP that the anti-terrorism officer, Upul Seneviratne, was killed by a suspected rebel bomb near the Buddhist holy city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka.

“By all accounts we have, he was killed by the terrorists,” Mr Fernando said.

Mr Seneviratne was in charge of the Special Task Force, a counter terrorism commando unit.

In the last 20 years, as Sri Lanka’s 3.2 million minority Tamils have fought for a separate homeland, the civil war has killed about 65,000 people. A ceasefire was declared in 2002, but it has unravelled since December.

Fighting continued in the area today despite efforts by the Norwegian envoy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, who met with Government and rebel leaders last week to try and settle the dispute.

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