Suspected Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebels killed 64 people yesterday when mines blew up a bus in the worst attack since a 2002 truce, officials said, prompting a wave of air strikes on rebel positions.

The government said the rebels used two mines side by side, peppering the packed bus with ball bearings on an isolated road near rebel territory. At the hospital in the north central town of Anuradhapura, some mourned the loss of whole families.

"The bus was blown over," 37-year-old survivor Chintha Irangani said. She was taking her three children to a clinic. All of them died.

"There was blood and body parts everywhere. I fell unconscious. I saw my children's bodies at the hospital."

A television cameraman said the road beside the overturned bus was covered with glass and blood. In the hospital, he saw torn and burnt corpses including many women and children. Officials said 13 children were among the dead.

Most on the bus were from the island's majority Sinhalese community. The government said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) wanted to provoke an ethnic backlash against minority Tamils to support their demands for a separate Tamil homeland.

"We have to seriously consider the ceasefire agreement and possibly restructure it," government spokesman Kehilya Rambukwella told a news conference.

The Tigers denied involvement in the attack. Few have believed their denials of responsibility for similar attacks on the military.

Source: China Daily