Don’t tamper with explosives, Police warn children

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

Police have called upon parents and school teachers to educate children not to tamper with explosives found in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Several persons have been killed while many others have been injured critically following explosions of ordnance and claymore mines found in the North and the East in the recent past.

“The explosions occurred when children tampered with abandoned ordnance,” the Police Media Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said.

He said two children, aged 17 and 15, from Puliankulama died while three others were injured recently when the children were meddling with the exploded.

The ordnance had been left behind by fleeing LTTE cadre at the last stage of war against terrorism. Several such deaths have occurred in the past, the police spokesman said.

A 15-year-old boy died while tampering with an abandoned bomb found on the sea beach near Iyar kovil in the Kyats area in June. Another boy, along with two others, sustained injuries when a torch battery they were examining exploded at Thambuttegama in February. A nine-year-old boy died with a sixteen year old boy was injured when they were examining ordnance at Akkaraipattu. Meanwhile, six persons were injured when ordnance retrieved from a stream at Puliyankulama exploded last December.