Eravur explosion kills six

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The powerful bomb which went off in the heart of Eravur town this afternoon around 4 p.m. (10.00 GMT) was packed in a tractor and was timed to hit a large Sri Lankan Army convoy which was passing by. The army convoy missed the blast as another tractor laden with bags of rice which was giving way to the SLA convoy took the full impact of the explosion.

The driver of the tractor and two civilians who were on it were killed instantly. The driver is yet to be identified.

Three others,including a policeman, were also killed, and twelve shops in the vicinity of the explosion were damaged by the blast, said sources in Eravur.

The tractor bomb exploded in front of a garage at the Eravur town junction, fifty yards from the local Sri Lankan Police station.

A Policeman at the Eravur Police station, identified as T.M Ariyapala, was killed by shrapnel, said sources in Eravur. Three Policemen who were on patrol and thirteen civilians were wounded.

SLA sources in Batticaloa blamed the Liberation Tigers for the tractor bomb.

This is the second attempt this year by the LTTE to attack the weekly army convoy between Batticaloa and Polannaruwa, they said.

Last week a road clearing patrol of the Sri Lanka Army defused a land mine on the Batticaloa - Valaichenai road, which was placed in readiness for a large SLA convoy carrying troops from Batticaloa to Polonnaruwa.

The SLA patrol had, however, managed to detect and defuse the mine before the SLA convoy passed by.

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