Colombo, Aug. 30 (Reuters): At least 45 people were injured when a small bomb exploded in a busy market area in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, officials said.

The blast comes as the military has intensified an offensive in the island nation’s north to surround separatist LTTE rebels.

“It was a bomb placed close to an apple vendor in Pettah,” military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. Military officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the blast was triggered by around 100g of explosives.

Dr Anil Jansinghe, a director at Colombo National Hospital, said 45 people had been admitted, among them two boys and four women. Most of the wounded suffered minor or moderate injuries, from burns and the blast’s shock waves, he said. “This was definitely the LTTE.”