Sri Lankan police said Saturday that a large quantity of powerful C4 explosives has been discovered while being transported by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels from the north to the capital Colombo.

The explosives were found in a lorry transporting coconut at a security check point in North Western Province's Kurunegala district, about 170 km from Colombo at around 6 p.m. local time on Friday (1230 GMT).

The driver and his assistant had tried to offer a bribe to the check point policemen in order to pass through the check point unchecked.

When the police refused to accept money the two men fled the scene leaving the lorry.

The Army's bomb disposal squad was rushed to the scene and they found the large haul of explosive.

"We found 47 boxes of C4 explosive weighing 1052 kg packed underneath coconut," Corporal Gamini Dissanayake of the bomb disposal squad said.

Defense officials said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) had attempted to send the explosives to Colombo to carry out a massive attack against important locations in the capital.

The driver and his assistant have been arrested, police said.

C-4 or Composition C-4 is a common type of plastic explosive used by the LTTE in bomb attacks in Sri Lanka. It can be easily molded into any shape or stuffed into gaps in buildings, equipment or machinery.

The military said the LTTE had used 50 kg of C-4 explosives to attack the central bank in 1996, killing 55 people and injuring over 1000 others.

Source: Xinhua