Madu Shrine premises comes under shelling: Priest

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2008, 10:24 GMT]
Shells were exploding near the Shrine of Our Lady of Madu as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued to fire shells from Periya Pa'ndivirichchaan and Chinna Pa'ndivirichchaan areas since noon Wednesday, one of the priests staying in the Church told TamilNet when contacted over the phone Thursday. The shelling ceased only for two hours from 3:30 a.m. till 5:30 a.m. Thursday. "If you manage to look outside from here, you only see smoke and dust in the atmosphere amid deafening noise," he said.

There were also heavy exchange of gunfire 1 km away from the Church, according to the priest.

Some of the windows of the Church were damaged and sharpnel hit the building where they were staying.

Confirming that there were no combatants in the vicinity, he said most of the explosions of exploding shells were heard along the road from Madu to Paalampiddi.

Shells exploded inside the cemetery of the Church, located 500 meters away, he said.

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