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Sri Lanka probes negligence after dynamite depot blast: Report
Sep 18, 201011:37 PM
KARADIYANARU, Sri Lanka (AFP): Sri Lankan authorities on Saturday probed negligence as a possible cause of a powerful blast at a dynamite depot in the island”s east that killed 25 people.
The military said that 16 policemen, two Chinese contractors and seven Sri Lankan civilians died in Friday”s explosion in Batticaloa district, while another 54 people were wounded.
Initial forensic reports suggested serious mistakes were made in storing explosives alongside detonators at the Karadiyanaru police station, a senior police official told AFP, declining to be named.
“It appears both dynamite and gelignite (used as detonating agents) were stored together and that”s something which should not have happened,” he said.
Families held two funerals Saturday for some of those killed in the explosion, with more scheduled for later.
Heavy earth-moving equipment was being brought to the village of Karadiyanaru to begin clearing the site of the blast, which was felt throughout a 10-mile (16-kilometre) radius.
“We are going to clear the site and see if there are any more bodies trapped under the wreckage of vehicles and buildings that were completely destroyed,” a local relief official told AFP.
He said the death toll was officially placed at 25 based on a body count, but investigators were working to establish whether there were more people missing after three containers of explosives blew up.
The blast created a crater 35 feet (10 metres) deep at the site of Karadiyanaru police station, where the dynamite had been stored for safekeeping.
The explosives had been intended for rock blasting by a Chinese company building roads in the former war zone of the Indian Ocean island.
Sri Lanka faced numerous bomb blasts in the late stages of the 37-year war against Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended when government forces wiped out the top guerrilla leadership in May last year.
But the military said the cause of Friday’s blast did not look to be suspicious.
“We completely rule out sabotage. There is no threat to security in that area,” military spokesman Ubaya Medawala said.
Medawala initially gave the death toll as “over 60” but later revised it down to 25.
Karadiyanaru, where the blast took place, is a fishing village that was previously under the control of the separatist Tamil Tigers, who fought for a homeland for ethnic Tamils.
