One person was killed during an exchange of fire between a group and the Police in the Koggalla area in Ambalantota, in the early hours of yesterday, the police said. The incident resulted when the group in the lorry refused to stop as directed by the Police. The group had later shot at the officers while driving away and the lorry driver had also attempted to run over the policemen.
One Police officer had returned fire. “An individual in the lorry was killed in the return fire,” Police spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara said, adding that the driver and another person suspected to have been in the lorry at the time, surrended to the Ambalantota Police later through a lawyer yesterday morning.
Making a statement to the Police, the suspects had claimed the lorry was transporting a stolen stock of bananas at the time of the incident.
According to the Police, the duo in their statement had also claimed to have left behind the stolen goods along with the body of their dead colleague on the wayside, 2.5 km from where the shooting took place. Ambalantota Police are carrying out further investigation into the incident to ascertain if the group had other illegal goods in its possession.