Sri Lanka’s Tigers have bomb to blow up ‘half of Colombo’: PM

June 10, 2007 (AFP) - Tamil Tiger rebels have rigged up a truck with over a tonne of explosives that could blow up half of Colombo, Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake claimed Sunday.







The authorities received information about the truck bomb following the discovery last week of over 1,000 kilogrammes (2,200 pounds) of plastic explosives hidden in another truck, Wickremanayake said.

"The explosives in that truck was enough to blow up half of Colombo," Wickremanayake said.

"We are told that there is a second truck with the same quantity of explosives.

"

Authorities were on the lookout for the second truck, he said, declining to specify what they believed to be the potential target.

The prime minister announced the potential bomb threat while expressing regret over Thursday's expulsion of minority Tamils from the capital in an operation police said was needed to foil attacks by Tamil Tiger infiltrators.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been held responsible for a spate of bomb attacks in the capital and elsewhere during their decades-long separatist campaign.