“The bus that was carrying a large number of schoolchildren, office workers and farmers was first attacked with a claymore blast and then fired upon by the terrorists (LTTE),” the Defence Ministry said, adding that there were 13 women and 10 men among the dead.

There were two children among the wounded.

In another incident in the same area, five farmers were hacked and shot to death and four more wounded.

The twin blasts coincides with the termination of the 2002 Norwegian-brokered ceasefire agreement with the rebels on Wednesday evening.

SLMM bids adieu

Addressing his last press conference in Colombo, departing Nordic truce monitoring mission head Maj Gen Lars Jon Solvesberg  told reporters: “The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) is convinced that Sri Lanka’s conflict cannot be solved by military means.”