Suspected Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebels killed 64 people in a mine ambush on a bus yesterday in the worst attack since a 2002 truce, officials said, prompting a wave of air strikes on rebel positions.

The government said the rebels used two mines side by side, peppering the packed bus with ball bearings on an isolated road near rebel territory. Fifty-eight people died at the scene and three others at hospital, police said.

A Reuters Television cameraman said the road beside the overturned bus was covered with glass and blood. In the hospital, he saw torn and burnt corpses including many women and children. There was no word on casualties from the air strikes.

Most on the bus were from the island’s majority Sinhalese community. The government said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) wanted to provoke an ethnic backlash against minority Tamils to support their demands for a separate Tamil homeland. “We have to seriously consider the ceasefire agreement and possibly restructure it,” government spokesman Kehilya Rambukwella told a news conference.

The Tigers denied involvement in the attack. Few have believed their denials of responsibility for similar attacks on the military. More than 500 people have died since early April, and many fear the island risks a return to civil war.