Gunmen open fire on buses carrying SL voters

A group of unidentified gunmen open fire on two buses carrying voters in Sri Lanka's Mannar district on Saturday as polling was underway for the island nation's presidential election, a police spokesman said

The group hurled stones on the first bus, damaging the windscreen, and then they opened fire on the second bus from behind, the spokesman told Xinhua news agency.

He said that none of the passengers were injured but the buses had been damaged.

The group managed to flee before police personnel reached the incident spot, the spokesman said, adding that the voters were safely escorted to their polling stations.

No arrests have been made so far and the police were currently investigating the incident.

Voting began at 7 a.m. at over 12,000 polling centres to elect the country's eighth President.