Tourists warned over Sri Lanka trips as violence spreads

The British Foreign Office today broadened its travel warning for Sri Lanka to include an eastern area where the massacre of 10 Muslims sparked violent riots this week.

A statement posted on the office’s website advised against travel to the south eastern Ampara town and Arugam Bay due to “the continued deterioration of the security situation.”

A travel warning had already been in place for northern and eastern parts of the country, following the outbreak of fighting in August between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels which killed more than 1,000 combatants and civilians.

On Monday, the bodies of 10 Muslim labourers were found in a remote jungle in the Muslim-dominated Pottuvil area, about 155 miles east of the capital, Colombo.

A police curfew was temporarily imposed there Wednesday when 14 people were wounded when police fired on Muslim protesters angered by the killings. The atrocity has been largely blamed by the local population on special government police forces.

Separately, suspected Tamil rebels fatally shot an ethnic minority Tamil civilian in the north-west overnight and troops found the bullet-riddled bodies of three civilians in the northern Jaffna Peninsula, the military said today. There was no immediate comment from the rebels.