Nearly three hundred others were wounded when the device, planted in a car, went off at Colombo's main bus terminal during the rush hour.

The incident is one of the worst mass killings in the long-running feud between the island's two main ethnic groups, the Tamils and the Sinhalese.

Most of the victims were from the country's majority ethnic group, the Sinhalese, who are Buddhists.

The two-and-a-half million Tamils, who are Hindus, make up 18% of Sri Lanka's 16 million people.

The Sri Lankan authorities believe the bomb was planted by Tamil extremists - known as the Tamil Tigers - who are fighting for an independent homeland.

Colombo was been placed under a dusk to dawn curfew after gangs of Sinhalese began to attack Tamils in revenge.

Massacre

The incident brings to 250 the numbers killed in attacks in the past week in Sri Lanka.

It follows the massacre of 127 people - mainly Sinhalese - four days ago in the town of Trincomalee, in the heart of the Tamil region in the north and east Sri Lanka.

Four years ago Tamil militants began a campaign for a separate state - since them more than 5,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

The Sri Lankan government has proposed giving greater autonomy to Tamil areas but refuses to consider an independent Tamil nation.

The Tamils were a prosperous elite when Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, was ruled by the British.

They say since the country gained its independence they have been discriminated against in favour of the Sinhalese majority.

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