A Buddhist monk injured in a cable automobile crash in Sri Lanka died on Sunday, elevating the dying toll to eight within the worst accident of its type, police stated.
Seven monks, together with three foreigners, have been killed immediately when their cabin plunged down the mountainside close to a forest monastery within the northwestern Kurunegala district on Wednesday evening.
Six others had been taken to hospital for accidents, 4 in essential situation.
“One of the six monks in hospital succumbed to his injuries late last night,” a police official advised AFP.
He stated the funerals of 5 monks — 4 Sri Lankans and a Romanian — have been held on Saturday at a cemetery close to their monastery.
Buddhist monks carry coffins of fellow monks throughout a funeral ceremony on the Na Uyana Monastery in Melsiripura on September 27, 2025.
-/AFP through Getty Photos
A Russian monk is to be buried together with the Sri Lankan monk who died in hospital, a spokesperson for the monastery stated.
He added that the stays of the third international monk, an Indian nationwide, had been repatriated to his family in India.
The 13 monks had crowded into the small makeshift cabin as they headed to meditation items atop a mountain inside the huge Na Uyana monastery, officers stated. The monastery covers over 5,000 acres of forest on the mountain vary, and is dwelling to about 150 Buddhist monks, in accordance with its web site.
Preliminary investigations steered that the cable had snapped, sending the cabin careering downhill at excessive pace earlier than it jumped the observe and crashed right into a tree.
Buddhist monks stand on the website of a cable automobile accident in Sri Lanka’s north-western district of Kurunegala on September 25, 2025. No less than eight Buddhist monks, together with three foreigners, have been killed when their cable-pulled rail automobile snapped and crashed down a mountainside in north-western Sri Lanka, police stated.
-/AFP through Getty Photos
Sri Lanka International MinisterVijitha Herath took to social media to specific his condolences.
“Shocked by the loss of venerable monks, including international members of the Sangha, in the tragic accident at Na Uyana Aranya Senasanaya,” Herath wrote on X. “Sri Lanka mourns with the Buddhist community worldwide. My condolences to all affected, and prayers for recovery of the injured.”
The monastery is positioned about 80 miles north-east of the capital, Colombo.
