Police fire injures school boy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 September 1999, 11:50 GMT]
An eight year old school boy at the Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS) in Sungaankerni, 33 km. north of Batticaloa, was seriously wounded in his classroom this morning in indiscriminate firing by a Police patrol. The military trained Police was on a patrol in the area near the school.

The patrol was firing in all direction as they were passing through the Sungaankerni village according to residents.

S.Rusaanthan who was in class at the time was hit in his abdomen by the firing of the Police party. The boy was rushed to the Valaichenai hospital, bleeding heavily.

Although doctors at this hospital had advised that the boy should be immediately sent to Batticaloa for emergency surgery, there had been no ambulance to do so according to sources.

The authorities had made no attempt to obtain an ambulance from the nearest hospital.

The boy's parents had to hire an autorickshaw to take him to the Batticaloa hospital said a teacher at the Sungaankerni GTMS.