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| Deadly blast hits Sri Lanka bus | Deadly blast hits Sri Lanka bus |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| At least 11 people died after an explosion hit a civilian bus in the central Sri Lankan town of Dambulla. | |
| Police said that many more people had been injured in the blast, which occurred at a bus station. | |
| The bus had stopped on its way from the central town of Kandy to the north-central town of Anuradhapura. | |
| The attack comes amid increased security ahead of celebrations on Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of Sri Lanka's independence from Britain. | The attack comes amid increased security ahead of celebrations on Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of Sri Lanka's independence from Britain. |
| Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said that Tamil Tiger rebels were to blame for the attack. | Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said that Tamil Tiger rebels were to blame for the attack. |
| There has been no comment from the rebels but they routinely deny such attacks, the BBC's Roland Buerk reports from Colombo. | |
| The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka since 1983. | The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka since 1983. |
| The civil war there has intensified since last month, when the government pulled out of a ceasefire with the rebels. | |
| At the weekend 18 people, many of them children, were killed in a bomb attack on a bus in the north-west of the island. | |
| The Tigers blamed the bombing on a clandestine army unit operating behind their lines, but the military denied responsibility. |