More than 10,000 Sri Lankan refugees are fleeing Tamil Tiger-held territory in the island's east, aid workers said today.
The refugees - some on foot, others in tractors - left the rebel-held town of Vakarai on the northwest coast at dawn and were heading south towards government-held territory a few miles away amid sporadic artillery fire.
"Some of the people are making their way down the coast, others are coming through jungle in vehicles," Selvaraj Jeyaraj, project co-ordinator for the Italian Red Cross, said. "We are talking about 12,000 internally displaced, more or less," he added.
The United Nations confirmed the exodus.
Around 20,000-25,000 refugees had already fled Vakarai in recent weeks, and analysts said today's exodus meant a military showdown was imminent.
Vakarai is in the middle of a 20-kilometre-long pocket of rebel-held territory, around 240 kilometres northeast of Colombo, which the military surrounded after capturing rebel terrain in a series of battles in recent months and have vowed to capture.