Five students were killed in a shoot out on Monday evening

R. Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) accused the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) of killing the students in Trincomalee on Monday evening.

The Trincomalee district MP told the BBC Sandeshaya (Sinhala Service) that killing was “state terrorism unleashed on the Tamils”.

Army denial

But SLA denied that they have any involvement with the killing.

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe who confirmed that there were gun shot injuries told bbcsinhala.com that the police is conducting an inquiry into the incident. He did not name any suspects.

Tension remains high in the eastern town following conflicting reports regarding the deaths.

The Tamil Tiger rebels have accused government troops of a grenade attack on the students as they were sitting on the beach then opening fire as they tried to escape.

'Shot in the head'

But the Sri Lankan defence ministry said the students were suspected rebels planning an attack and the grenade they were carrying exploded prematurely causing the deaths.

It said the police recovered one more grenade at the scene.

However a spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM,) Helen Olafsdottir, told BBC Sandeshaya there was evidence that all five of the students had been shot in the head in a manner that she described as resembling executions.

Large crowds have gathered outside the main hospital while forensic tests are being carried out on the victims.