Sri Lanka police find Tamil Tiger-style explosives

Police found an explosives-packed suicide jacket of the type used by Tamil Tiger rebels and two powerful land mines in a fertiliser bag abandoned in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo today, officers said.

The two Claymore mines, which can be detonated by remote control, weighed eight kilograms (17.6lb) each and could have caused massive damage, area police chief Anuradha Mahindasiri told reporters.

Separatist Tamil Tiger rebels used such jackets for suicide attacks during their 19-year conflict against the government.

“We feel this is part of some terrorist activity,” Mahindasiri said of the discovery. Police routinely refer to the Tamil Tigers as terrorists.

The jacket contained 1.8 kilograms (about 4lb) of explosives, enough to kill people in a close radius.

A less powerful jacket killed 27 people in December 1999.

Police on a pre-dawn patrol found the jacket and mines hidden in a fertiliser bag, he said.

Two people have been taken into custody for questioning following the discovery.

More than 65,000 people were killed after the Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 to create a separate state for minority Tamils, claiming discrimination by majority Sinhalese.