Agencies

Colombo, February 21:

At least three people were killed and 50 injured in a courthouse explosion in Sri Lanka today, as former US presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton toured the region.

Police said the courthouse at Embilipitiya, 160 km south east of the capital Colombo, was rocked by a bomb explosion. Gunfire followed the explosion.

The court was hearing a case against a notorious underworld criminal at the time of the explosion, police said. Sources at the Embilipitiya hospital said around 50 injured were brought to the hospital and the condition of at least six was critical.

Police said they suspected that a prisoner may have lobbed a grenade inside the courthouse in Embilipitiya as the magistrate began hearing cases listed for the day.

“We suspect this to be the work of a man held in prison custody at the court premises,” the region’s top police officer, Kingsley Ekanayake, said. He said a prison guard and a man and a woman were killed. Police said over two dozen prisoners had escaped in the confusion following the bombing.

Prisons’ chief Rumy Marzook said 56 remand prisoners had been taken to court this morning and about half of them were believed to have fled. A police search was launched to track them down.

“After the police investigations we will also conduct our own inquiries to get to the bottom of this,” Marzook said. The military said they were rushing a team of experts to the area to help in the investigation while the Criminal Investigation Department launched a probe.

The town is about 75 km from where Bush and Clinton were inspecting damage caused to Sri Lanka’s coastal regions by December’s tsunami. Clinton and Bush left the island and headed for the Maldives after inspecting US-funded tsunami relief operations, police said.