Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was died after being shot near his Colombo residence late on Tuesday, police said today.
It was not immediately clear who was to blame for the attack. He was taken to intensive care afterwards but died.
The shooting comes amid escalating tensions between the government and the Tamil Tigers rebels, who have repeatedly threatened to resume a two-decade civil war because of a rash of violence in the island's restive east that each side blames on the other.