Sri Lankan people carry the coffin of slain Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle during his funeral ceremony in Welihena outside Colombo, Sri Lanka following a suicide bombing.
In 2008, a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber detonated a device at the start of a marathon celebrating the start of Sri Lanka's new year, killing a dozen people and injuring almost 100. Highways minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, former Olympic marathon runner KA Karunaratne and the national athletics coach, Lakshman de Alwis, were among the dead. Viewers along the course, and those watching on television, served as shocked witnesses to the panic of screaming people surging through blood-stained streets.