THE nerve-wracked city panicked yesterday after rumours that separatist Tamil rebels had poisoned a major reservoir.
Phone lines were jammed for several hours as residents attempted to contact relatives and friends.
The rumour triggered pandemonium in the capital, already on edge following bomb blasts which ripped the heart out of its financial district on Wednesday last week, killing 82 people and injuring hundreds of others.
Government-controlled radio and TV at first called for calm. Later broadcasts said the story was only a rumour, and the Government was making immediate laboratory tests to ascertain if the water contained any traces of poison.
It was only six hours later the Government was able to scotch the rumour.
Meanwhile, a special police team investigating the bomb blasts has arrested an army sergeant suspected of helping rebel attackers slip into Colombo.
Investigations revealed the sergeant, stationed in the northernmost border town of Vavuniya, issued a special exit pass to the Tigers.
