Sri Lanka Casualty Toll Rises

About 40 civilians are being killed and more than 100 injured every day in fierce gun battles and artillery exchanges between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels, health officials said yesterday.

Dr Thurairajah Varatharajah, the government health officer for the Mullaittivu district, said that artillery shells were landing routinely in populated areas.

Speaking from a school in the coastal town of Putumattalan where he had set up a makeshift hospital, Varatharajah told the Associated Press that medics were being overwhelmed by casualties and running out of essential medicine. Twenty-two people had been killed when the hospital took a direct hit this week, he said.

"We are facing in the hospital big problems on all sides. Not enough toilets, bad water supply, food is also a problem," he said in a telephone interview.

Around 200,000 people remain in the shrinking patch of jungle controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the north-eastern coast.

The trickle of refugees has become a flood: official figures showed 37,420 people had crossed the frontlines this year, with almost 35,000 making the hazardous trip this month after running out of food and drinking water.

Sri Lanka rejected claims of high casualties and has resisted international calls to halt its offensive against the Tigers.