A powerful explosion ripped through a packed stadium during a musical show in northwestern Sri Lanka early today, causing scores of casualties, police said.
The blast occurred in the city of Kurunegala where more than 100,000 fans had gathered for a performance by two popular singers from neighbouring India, they said.
It looks like a hand-grenade attack that may have also been linked to a gas container, said a police officer in Kurunegala, about 50 miles north of the capital Colombo.
An official of Sri FM, the radio station that organised the concert, said six people were killed and more than 150 injured, but police could not confirm this figure.
He said a fight had broken out between two local gangs just before the blast.
A separatist Tamil rebel group, that has in the past been linked to bombing in Colombo and other cities, has been observing a unilateral ceasefire since December.