A 25-year-old Tamil youth has been killed and a 13-year-old injured after a disused mortar shell reportedly exploded in Kilinochchi on Sunday.
The explosion, in the town of Umayalpuram, reportedly was due to an old, unexploded mortar shell that had been accidentally triggered.
The 13-year-old has been taken to Kilinochchi hospital with serious injuries and is still receiving medical treatment.
Early reports that the home where the youth was staying had several other old, unexploded shells amongst other scraps of metal. The family had reportedly been collecting the metal to sell for a living.
Several other similar tragic incidents have been reported in recent years across the Tamil homeland.
In 2015, a similar explosion in Jaffna led to two men being seriously injured after they were collecting metal for sale and found an unexploded bomb that was accidentally triggered.
In 2012, following the death of a young Tamil boy who tried to prise apart explosive device for scrap metal to sell, the technical adviser for the U.N. Development Program's mine action group in Sri Lanka, officially recognised the use of cluster munitions by Sri Lanka.
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