Attackers opened fire on a prison bus outside Colombo on Monday, killing five prisoners and two armed guards in the worst gang-related violence to hit Sri Lanka in decades.
Police said the gunmen sprayed bullets at the bus as it passed through a wooded area near the capital, also wounding four guards.
One of the victims was a senior member of an underworld group operating in Sri Lanka, where automatic weapons remain easily available eight years after the end of a decades-long war.
“It is believed that the shooting was a result of enmity between two underworld gangs,” police said in a statement.
The prisoners were being driven to court for a hearing when the daytime attack took place, police said.
Large quantities of weapons found their way to criminal gangs during and after the war ended in May 2009 and attempts to tackle the problem have been largely ineffective.
