Three people were killed and another 16 were injured in an claymore mine explosion carried out by suspected Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka's east Wednesday afternoon, said the military.

Officials from the Media Center for National Security said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels detonated a claymore mine targeting a police emergency cab in Ottamavadi town of Batticaloa district around 5:15 p.m. (1145 GMT).

The killed were two civilians and a police constable. Another 10 civilians, four police and two Army personnel sustained injuries in the attack.

The claymore mine had been fixed on to a bicycle on the wayside, police said.

In the northern city of Jaffna, a LTTE hand grenade attack targeting troops missed its aim and fell onto a tuition class injuring a master and four students at around 4:10 p.m. (1040 GMT).

Nearly 4000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka's escalating clashes between government troops and the LTTE since December 2005.

Source: Xinhua