24 Killed in Piliyandala Bus Bomb- UPDATED

A civilian passenger bus belonging to the Kesbewa Peoplized Transportation Board bearing number 63-4170 plying between Piliyandala and Kahapola that commenced journey at the Piliyandala Town bus stand was rocked by an explosion from inside the bus around 6.50pm this evening. 24 civilians including 17 males and 7 females have died in the blast so far.

The total injured in the blast currently stand at 63. 47 are male, 16 are female. Among the civilians killed are a 10 year-old male child and a Buddhist Monk. 12 Seriously wounded civilians are undergoing emergency surgery at the moment. 3 of them critically injured in the head are at the Colombo NH ICU.

The bus was making a left turn from the depot onto the road when the blast took place. The explosive device had been planted on the middle right hand side of the bus.

The numbers game

Due to various propaganda estimates, guesstimates and copycat figures we would like to clear the casualty figure in the Army in the confrontation on the 23rd. Some sources had made false claims that 143 bodies of soldiers were lying in 3 funeral parlors in Colombo.

Others claimed figures were close to Tamilnet, which is 34 men more than the actual figure. We do not wish to discuss the Army's own figures for obvious reasons. According to reliable sources 88 soldiers were dead by last evening while 376 were injured and the remains of 28 more categorized as missing were handed over by ICRC in Vavuniya. This means a total of 116 were killed.

Of the 376, 174 are P1 and P2 (seriously and somewhat seriously wounded) while 190 categorized as P3 or walking wounded. If some of the soldiers in P1 die fighting for their lives in hospital, the actual number could increase. However, this is NOT the case at this moment in time.

The casualties to the LTTE is unknown. What is known for sure is that 17 dead Tiger bodies were recovered from Muhamalai and Kilali. We kindly request our readers not to be misled by propaganda, ill informed and copycat sites.