COLOMBO: A mortar shell struck the only functioning medical facility in Sri Lanka's northern war zone yesterday, throwing bloody bodies into the dirt outside and killing 49 people, a government health official said. It was the second time this month the hospital was hit.

The attack on the makeshift hospital - little more than a corrugated tin roof with blue tarp walls - also wounded 50 people. It came after a weekend of heavy shelling that killed hundreds of civilians trapped in the tiny war zone. The military denied shelling the coastal strip under rebel control, which is packed with an estimated 50,000 civilians.

Doctor Thurairaja Varatharajah, the top government health official in the war zone, said a single mortar shell hit the admissions ward yesterday morning. The death toll was expected to rise, he said.