COLOMBO: In a discovery described as startling, Sri Lankan troops scouring Mullaitivu district in the north have found what appears to be a submarine built by the Tamil Tigers. The army���s Task Force 3 found the LTTE ���underwater vehicle", along with three other smaller versions of the same boat, at Udayarkattukulam on Wednesday, the defence ministry said.

"Three suicide boats and a large haul of LTTE maritime equipment were also found at the location," an army statement said on Thursday. The biggest ���submarine��� was about 35 feet long and was armour-plated.

Also recovered were a low-bed trailer, an armour plate used for bending machines, 15 oxy-acetylene welding cylinders, 30 armour plate sheets of 20 feet each, three pedal-type suicide boats, a Dvora-type fast attack craft, a large number of vehicles like trucks, buses and water tankers and equipment like lathe machines, compressors and electric motors.

There were also three ���hangar-shaped buildings", 15 small tiled-houses of 20 ft x 30 ft dimension and five tiled billets. The houses and billets were fully air-conditioned. Meanwhile, in a much delayed medical evacuation operation, the United Nations managed to bring hundreds of wounded civilians, including 50 critically injured children, from the ramshackle hospital inside the war zone to government-controlled Vavuniya town.

Human rights groups and the army had earlier charged the LTTE with preventing their evacuation. LTTE political head B Nadesan, however, denied the reports and claimed that it was in fact appealing to international aid agencies to shift the patients to Vavuniya immediately. The LTTE did not oppose any attempt by civilians to leave the combat zone, he said.