Explosion rocks Sri Lanka capital Colombo, wounds 44

BOMB BLAST: The blast was triggered by around 100 grammes of explosives placed in a crowded market.

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Colombo: At least 44 people were wounded when a blast hit a busy commercial area in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, officials said.

"There had been an explosion, it was a bomb placed close to an apple vendor in Pettah," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Military officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the blast was triggered by around 100 grammes of explosives placed in a crowded market.

Colombo National Hospital's director, Dr Hector Weerasinghe, said, "44 people have been admitted to hospital including two children and four women. There were no immediate deaths".

Sri Lanka's government officially scrapped a ceasefire in January and has since intensified a drive to defeat the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the island nation's north.

In recent weeks, the military has increased its attacks and captured rebel-held territory, trying to make good on a pledge to wipe out the Tamil Tigers by the year's end.

The rebels since 1983 have fought a civil war to carve out a homeland in northern Sri Lanka for the ethnic minority Tamil people.