A suicide bomber blew herself up inside Sri Lanka's army headquarters today, killing at least six people and seriously wounding the country's army commander.
"A suicide bomb went off near the army hospital aimed at the army commander's vehicle," an army spokesman said.
Staff at Colombo General Hospital, where the casualties were taken, said Army Commander Sarath Fonseka was undergoing surgery and was in critical condition.
Witnesses said the roads around army headquarters - in the centre of Colombo - had been sealed off, and several civilian ambulances were outside the heavily guarded compound.
The blast called into question a government ceasefire with the Tamil Tiger rebels and came as peace envoys from Norway tried to coax the rebels to return to peace talks in Switzerland.
Sri Lanka's north and east have been rocked by mine attacks and ethnic riots this month as a peace process between government and Tigers remains deadlocked, but the attack on the capital took the violence to a new level.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels, who have been observing a shaky ceasefire with the government since 2002, have used suicide bombers in their fight for a homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east.