In the poorly resourced health service in the Vanni area the Kilinochchi district hospital is the only one with a few modern facilities. In 1998 it was bombed out and destroyed. The hospital was eventually rebuilt and opened in a new location in 2005.
Sri Lankan Air Force bombers bombed the precincts of the newly built Kilinochchi district hospital again on 2 November 2006. Sixteen bombs were dropped and fifteen of them exploded. One house behind the hospital was flattened. Five civilians inside the home, including two students of Kilinochchi Central College, were killed. The Kilinochchi district hospital sustained damages. Three hospital employees and three patients also were injured. The roof ceiling of the hospital fell down. Shrapnel were strewn inside many of the hospital wards including the maternity ward. The bombing forced the patients to run out of the hospital in panic in the middle of treatment. Three hundred inpatients and 700 outpatients scattered in fear. Among them were newborn infants and mothers who had just given birth to them. Since it was school closing time school children also screamed and ran in panic. The SLMM and ICRC viewed the dead, injured and the damages to the hospital.
Names of victims (name, age)
1. Muruhesu Markandu, 63
2. Muruhesu Shanmuharatnam, 53
3. Ratnam Saraswathy, 60
4. Shanmuharatnam Krishanth, 19
5. Shanmuharatnam Sasi, 20