A woman suicide bomber blew herself up, killing seven other people and wounding more than 15 in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, just hours after Britain's Prince Charles flew out of the city yesterday. The bomb went off less than a mile from where the Prince of Wales had been staying at the end of a four-day tour which had almost been cancelled because of security fears.
Prince Charles described the attack as an "enormous tragedy" and said he had the "greatest sympathy" with the victims' families, when he spoke at an official banquet in Kathmandu last night.
The blast was detonated when air force officials stopped a white van and asked passengers to get out for a routine check in Colombo's commercial district, Slave Island.
"The woman got off with a briefcase and as she approached the sentry the bomb went off," a police spokesman said. Two men and two women from the air force were among those killed in the explosion.
The suicide bombing by Tamil Tiger guerrillas came two days after Sri Lanka celebrated the 50th anniversary of its independence from Britain. Two rebel cells were known to be active in Colombo.
Last month 17 people were killed, forcing a change in the venue for independence celebrations, after suicide bombers detonated a lorry outside a Buddhist shrine in the hill town of Kandy.
AFP adds: Sri Lankan nationalists and child rights activists yesterday renewed calls for an inquiry into child-sex allegations against the author Arthur C. Clarke.
The science fiction writer, who has made Sri Lanka his adopted home since 1956, denies British newspaper allegations that he had sex with local boys. He met Prince Charles at the banquet hosted by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
"It is deplorable that [Clarke] was invited," said Mr Nalin de Silva, secretary of the nationalist Thinker's Forum. "But what we are really interested in is the investigation. There is a very serious charge that must be probed."