Bus explosion in Sri Lanka kills 26, wounds 64

Colombo: At least 26 people were killed and 64 wounded when a blast ripped through a packed commuter bus during the evening rush-hour near the Sri Lankan capital on Friday, a police spokesman said.

The bomb exploded about at a bus depot in the town of Piliyandala just south of the capital, sending pieces of seats flying, witnesses said.

The roof of the red public bus, which was about to depart for the nearby town of Kahapola, was torn apart and its windows, and those of nearby buildings, were shattered.

Among the dead was a Buddhist monk and a small child.

The bomb was hidden in a parcel on the overhead rack near the front of the bus, said a military spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, who blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.