School panic after explosion hits Sri Lanka police post

An explosion near a school spread panic among students and teachers in Sri Lanka today.

The school in Vavuniya was evacuated and none of the 700 students were hurt, said police officer CI Bandara.

Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe, the military’s spokesman in Colombo, blamed separatist Tamil Tiger rebels for planting the roadside bomb at a police post. Earlier reports said the explosion was caused by a mortar.

The school – which has students from the country’s majority Sinhalese community - is in an area the government controls under a 2002 cease-fire agreement.

As soon as the news spread, parents who stayed nearby came and took their children home. The remaining students were evacuated by the school staff with the help of police.

The two policemen on guard duty when the explosion hit were wounded.

Vavuniya is the last major government-held town before territory controlled by the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels starts. The area had been the scene of violence between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the military.

The Tigers have fought since 1983 for a separate homeland for the Tamils, who are ethnic minority following decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

The cease-fire all but collapsed in 2006 as renewed fighting killed more than 4,000 combatants and civilians, according to European cease-fire monitors.