One killed, three wounded in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 1999, 10:01 GMT]
Three Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were wounded this morning when a drunken trooper went berserk and opened fire at the Rockhouse headquarters of the SLA Armoured Corps at Moreda in Colombo, said SLA sources.

When other soldiers attempted to subdue the trooper, he had tried to shoot himself with his T-56 assault rifle, the sources said.

The trooper is under arrest, they added.

The sources also said that a sentry at the SLA Headquarters had challenged and shot a man walking along a nearby railway track at about 2am today.

Subsequently it was discovered the man was a soldier from the SLA's Guard regiment who was receiving treatment at the mental health section of the hospital in the SLA headquarters, the sources said.