Home Mail2Lanka Email News Sports World Previous Stories

GAS WORKS STREET INFERNO THAT KILLED MORE THAN TWENTY PEOPLE CAUSED BY SUSPECTED LTTE BOMB HIDDEN IN THE FIRECRACKERS SHOP By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles Police sources in Colombo said that the Gas Work Street’s roaring inferno which may have caused the deaths of an estimated crowd of more than twenty people might have caused by a high powered LTTE bomb which was hidden in the fire crackers shop. The same sources said the government analyst had reported that the fire had caused by the high-powered TNT bomb that could be identified with the terrorist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and kept in the shop for safekeeping.. The bomb estimated to have weighed nearly three kilograms would have been stored in the Tamil businessman’s fire crackers shop on a concrete floor about eight feet high above the floor. Scenes of fire engines and SLA troops trying to put out the Pettah inferno of  Gas Works Street from the Island  Please go to the Daily mirror picture on the next page below The bomb would have been remaining in the firecracker shop until further instructions from LTTE headquarters to be detonated somewhere in the city, the police suspected. In the four stories building where the firecracker shop was run there were also other apartments and illegally run lodges the occupants of those became victims to the fire the police said. The fire crackers business was run by a business man called Swami Nathan who died with several other members of the family , police said. More than twenty people are believed dead in the fire. Among the twenty identified many died of burns and others by inhaling toxic fumes, the police said. Among the dead 19 are Tamils. The Pettah and Keselwatte Police stations were investigating in to the cause of the fire. The Daily Mirror photo of the rescue Operation of those who were trapped In the Gas Works street  fire by the fire Brigade and other volunteers Photo by Kumara Dayawansa Nanneththi Meanwhile the Daily Mirror reported that the police also barred reporters from covering inquiries into the deaths of some victims of the fire. “Reporters of daily newspapers were not allowed to cover the proceedings of the inquest of persons who died at the Gas Works street fire” December 17, the newspaper said. The inquest proceedings were held within closed doors at Hulftsdorp before the additional magistrate, Colombo Namal Bandara Balalle, it reported further. Before the inquiry the magistrate also visited the scene of the alleged crime. But the newspaper did not reveal why this unusual step was taken to prevent the coverage of open judicial proceedings of the courts by newspaper reporters. (EOM) (02/12/20 go2lanka.com)

webmaster@go2lanka.com