Female bomber kills 12 in Colombo train attack

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Twelve people were killed and almost 100 wounded, most of them students, when a woman blew herself up near a train as it was pulling into a station Sunday in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, police said.

Five students and a coach from D.S. Senanayake College, a prestigious grade school in Colombo, were killed. A student from another Colombo private school -- Holy Family Convent College -- also was killed, as were two college students and a policeman. The two other victims have not been identified.

The blast occurred just hours after a grenade detonated inside Sri Lanka's central zoo Sunday morning, wounding at least six people.

Sunday, a holiday in Sri Lanka, is a time when hundreds flock to the zoo and other attractions. Police said they think the attack at the zoo was intended to cause panic rather than casualties.

The suicide bombing took place as a train was pulling into Fort Station -- the country's main railway station in Colombo's city center, authorities said.

The casualties included both passengers in the train and others who were waiting on the platform, police said.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for either explosion. The government blamed the rebel group, the Tamil Tigers, for the train blast saying the group often uses suicide bombers in its attacks.

In recent days, Sri Lanka -- already in chaos as government and rebels continue a deadly battle -- has seen a rise in civilian casualties despite heightened security ahead of the country's independence day celebrations Monday.

On Saturday, a bomb explosion on a bus in a tourist town north of Colombo on Saturday killed 20 people and sent at least 68 others to the hospital, authorities said.

The island nation in southeast Asia has been in turmoil since the government withdrew from a cease-fire January 16 between its forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers.

The fighting in Sri Lanka pits government forces in a country dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic group against rebels from the Tamil minority. The rebels are fighting for the creation of an independent nation, citing discrimination by the Sinhalese. E-mail to a friend

Journalist Amal Jayasinghe contributed to this report.

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