The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Colombo

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a powerful roadside bomb in the Sri Lankan capital Wednesday, killing at least five people and wounding 26 others, police said.

The powerful Claymore mine -- a fragmentation bomb packed with ball bearings -- targeted an army bus transporting wounded soldiers, although hospital officials said most of the victims were civilians.

A police official at the scene said five people were killed in the attack -- three of them died instantly, while two others died en route to the hospital.

Twenty-six more were injured and rushed to Colombo National Hospital, officials said. Seven of them were in critical condition.

Hospital director Hector Weerasinghe said most of those killed or injured were civilians -- with just one soldier reported killed and 11 hurt. There were no reports of any foreign nationals among the casualties.

The mine went off as the army bus passed the low-budget Nippon Hotel in Colombo's commercial Slave Island area, where the military has several key installations, police and witnesses said.

"We suspect it was a roadside bomb," a police official at the scene said. "There are several civilian casualties. At least another civilian bus was also hit by the blast."

Sri Lanka's defence ministry blamed Tamil guerrillas, who have frequently used roadside bombs in their decades-old war for an independent homeland in the north and east of the ethnic Sinhalese-majority island.