Protesters in Colombo attacked the British High Commission today and burned an effigy of David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, accusing the UK of supporting the Tamil Tiger rebels.

More than 1,000 people pelted the compound with rotten eggs and stones and sprayed graffiti. They carried placards with slogans reading "Hands off Sri Lanka, we are not your colony" and describing Mr Miliband as a "White Tiger".

The protests came amid scenes of jubilation in the city, as the Sri Lankan Government declared victory over the rebels and the end of combat operations in the country's 26-year-long civil war.

Britain responded furiously to the protest, saying it was outrageous that the Sri Lankan authorities had permitted it to turn violent.

A High Commission spokesman said: "It is an outrage that the authorities allowed this demonstration to become so violent and to cause such damage to our property, in clear contravention of their responsibilities."

One Briton who was inside the High Commission said: "The protesters came right up against the walls of the building. They were throwing rotten eggs and vegetables. It is concerning that they were allowed to come so close".

After about an hour, the protesters dispersed, leaving damage to the compound’s outer wall and a CCTV camera, although no members of staff were injured.

Many Sri Lankans believe that the West has supported the Tamil Tiger cause by criticising the Army’s offensive against the rebels and the Government’s refusal to call a ceasefire to allow civilians to escape.

S. S. Moulana, 40, an anti-British protestor, said: "The UK has pretended to be our friend, but it helps the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] terrorists by asking for the UN to take action against Sri Lanka.

"We now know our real friends are Russia and China. And they are members of the Security Council so we don’t need the help of the West."

Kamal, 26, who works as a chef in Colombo, said that he also supported the demonstration. "The West has been hypocritical. If the UK and America have the right to crush terrorism in Afghanistan or anywhere they please, Sri Lanka has the right to act in its own country. But instead the West has supported the LTTE," he said.

Sri Lanka's growing ties with China were underlined this week when the country was invited as a dialogue partner to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) next summit in June. The group includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

State television reported today that the leader of the Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been shot dead early this morning as he tried to escape the conflict zone hidden in an ambulance. Prabhakaran's son and other Tiger commanders are also reported to have died in the fighting.

The end came after the conflict zone where the army had penned the remaining Tiger forces dwindled to a patch of land just 100 metres across, the military said. Independent verification of the situation is all but impossible as journalists are not being allowed near.

Tens of thousands of civilians who had been caught and in some cases injured in the crossfire were finally allowed to flee over the weekend. Their plight, and that of hundreds of thousands of others who have already been displaced by the fighting, has caused international concern.

In recent weeks anti-Western sentiment in Sri Lanka has been stoked by groups ranging from Buddhist monks to the nation's Maoists.

They claim that calls for a ceasefire from Britain and the United States would have allowed the Tigers, who have been teetering on the brink of defeat for months, to regroup.

Western diplomats insist that they were only concerned to avert a bloodbath as an estimated 300,000 civilians were caught in the battle zone.

"Some groups have wrongly presented our calls [for a ceasefire] as an attempt to intervene on the side of the LTTE," a British diplomat said.

Britain said yesterday that it would give another £5 million in aid to Sri Lanka.

"It is vital that the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers allow international agencies immediate access to the thousands of people driven from their homes by the fighting," said Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary.

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