At least 27 people have been killed and 80 injured in a suicide bomb attack in northern Sri Lanka.
The bomber struck during the opening of a new office for the opposition United National Party (UNP) in the north central town of Anuradhapura, 200km north of the capital Colombo.
No group has claimed responsibility but the Tamil Tigers, which has been fighting a 25-year war to create an independent Tamil state in the north of Sri Lanka, is suspected.
Retired Major-General Janaka Perera is among the dead, an official said.
Last month, Mr Perera unsuccessfully ran to be North Central Province's chief minister, a powerful local position.
Anuradhapura is a huge tourist draw and home to some of Sri Lankan Buddhism's holiest sites.
For a millennium it was the seat of the kingdom of the Sinhalese, who make up 75% of the Indian Ocean island's 21m people.
It has many ancient ruins, but also major military operations to supply the war zone further north.
