At least seven people, including an underworld leader, were killed and four others injured when a bus carrying prisoners was attacked by unidentified people in in Sri Lanka's south-western town of Kalutara on Monday (February 27), police said. Two prison officers were also killed in the attack.
Police Media Spokesman Deputy IGP Priyantha Jayakody told the Colombo Page that an unidentified group of people opened fire on the bus killing seven and injuring four. The prison bus was transporting prisoners from Kalutara prison to Kaduwela Magistrate Court when the attack happened at the town's Nagaha junction.
The underworld leader, who died in the attack, was named Aruna Damith Udayanga alias 'Samayan' — a suspect in three murder cases. He had been shot in 2015 as well when he was being transported to the Kaduwela Magistrate Court but he had survived that attack.
The police said that two officers have also been critically injured in the attack and that they have been shifted to Nagoda Hospital. The police has deployed five teams to investigate into the shooting incident.
The media unit of the police said that preliminary investigations revealed that the gunmen were wearing clothes similar to police uniform.
