Luckily it ended with a boo hoo and not bang, bang

By Gemunu Wellage

A white van on Union Place caused fear among people and brought forth police and army personnel and the bomb disposal squad until it was discovered that it was stuck there due to a technical failure and not about to blow up.

Police immediately cordoned off the area after people had reported a suspicious-looking van at the Ibanwela junction on Friday evening. Despite the Nipon Hotel blast occurring just two days before and the much publicised public awareness campaign carried out by the Defence Ministry on taking precautions, people had thronged the area to get a closer look at this van believed to be hiding a bomb.

As police together with the bomb disposal squad began dismantling the van, an old man, oblivious to all the pandemonium had walked up to it with rope in hand hoping to get another vehicle to tow his van that had stalled due to a technical error.

A furious policeman who had been at the site for nearly two hours had reprimanded the old man who burst into tears on realising the gravity of what he had done. Eventually it all ended well with the onlookers assisting the old man to put his dismantled vehicle togther and tow it away.