News - Sonic boom rattles Colombo and suburbs

Scores of panic stricken people fled their coastal homes inland, on Friday when they mistook a sonic boom caused by Air Force fighter jets, for a massive bomb blast, which rattled homes and blurred television screens.

"The whole house shook," said Renuka Jayatunga, whose house is less than a kilometre from the sea-shore.

"I ran out with my daughter as I thought the house was going to collapse for the sound of the explosion, " she said.

Renuka, was among most villagers along the Pamunugama coastal area, who thought the explosion was a bomb blast set off by the LTTE.

The military said it was a sonic boom.

"The explosive sound was a sonic boom, caused by Air Force fighter jets which were engaging in a training exercise," said E.M.A. Bandara, a Navy spokesman, who visited the site.

Israeli-build K-fir fighter jets had been on a drill between Kalutara and Kalpitiya, an Air Force spokesman said.

A sonic boom can be heard when an aircraft breaks sound levels from sub-sonic to super sonic.

Initially, as news of the blast reached Colombo, Police Chief Chandra Fernando told reporters the explosion could have been caused by a LTTE sea-mine. He went on to say, that investigations into two mid-sea explosions on June 17, had revealed that the LTTE had planned to plant eight sea mines. Seven either exploded or were recovered.

"Probably the missing one, may have exploded," he said, about Friday's blast.

The news of the explosions also panicked the already jittery public in the capital.

The sound emanated along the same coast where barely a week earlier, police arrested three suspected LTTE cadre in diving gear and seized boats and explosives.Hours after the explosion dozens of youth stood on the shore, beside a coconut grove gazing at the open seas, from where they were convinced an explosion at sea took place.

"There's no way this could have been anything other than a bomb blast," said Sumith Prasanna, a 26-year-old fisherman. He said several helicopters circled the skies and Navy patrol boats had also headed toward the site soon after the blast.

"Even my television screen went blurred," said Eric Roshan, also a fisherman.

"If this was an Air Force exercise, we should have been informed in advance," he said.

"We are living in very dangerous times, and nothing should be left to chance," he said.