Sri Lanka shooting at campaign rally leaves one dead

Mr Karunanayake (centre) said the gunmen appeared to be targeting him (file image)

Unidentified gunmen have opened fire at a political campaign rally in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, killing one woman and injuring 12.

The shooting happened shortly after Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake left the rally. He was unhurt.

It is the first major violence associated with next month's parliamentary vote.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa is hoping to get into parliament and become prime minister.

Reports from the scene of the shooting say the gunmen fired bullets at the crowd before escaping.

The crowd had gathered at a rally in support of the government's UNP party.

Mr Karunanayake told reporters the gunmen "wanted to target me".

"I was 25 to 30 feet (9m) away when this happened," he said. "Four guys in a car opened fire at our crowd."

Meanwhile, Keerthi Tennakoon, head of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections, told AFP: "We are puzzled by this latest turn of events in Colombo because so far it has been relatively calm and even the level of violence in other areas has been very low."

Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections will take place on 17 August.

Ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa is standing as a candidate for the ruling coalition, despite an attempt by current President Maithripala Sirisena to prevent him from doing so.

Mr Sirisena had urged Mr Rajapaksa to quit politics. Mr Rajapaksa lost bitterly fought presidential elections to party rival Maithripala Sirisena in January.