A 35-year-old man has been arrested by the Unawatuna Tourist Police Bureau over allegations that he threatened to beat a group of foreign children standing on a road in the Unawatuna area of Galle.
The arrest was made on Monday, Hiru News reported.
The children were aged 12 and 13. The suspect is alleged to have threatened to assault them while claiming they were standing in a way that obstructed his business premises.
Officers at the Unawatuna tourist police post received information about the incident and arrested the suspect on that basis, police said.
Context
Unawatuna is one of the busiest stretches of the southern coast for foreign visitors, and the Tourist Police maintain a dedicated post in the town. The bureau has featured in a run of recent cases involving foreign visitors in the area: a 21-year-old was arrested on 1 November over an alleged sexual assault at Jungle Beach on the Rumassala headland, and three men were arrested in September over a racket using turtles to extract money from tourists.
Tourist safety on the southern coast has drawn repeated official attention, including a call from the Tourism Minister for urgent policing of tourist areas.
Not reported
The filing does not give the children’s nationality, say how many children were involved beyond their ages, or state whether they were accompanied by an adult. It does not describe the nature of the business premises or name the suspect.
It does not say what charges the suspect faces, which police station the case was handed to, when he is due in court, or whether he has been released on bail. It does not record any comment from the children’s family, and no account from the suspect is reported.
The suspect has not been convicted of any offence and is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Sourcing note: this report rests on a single verified newsroom. Ada Derana also carried an item on the same arrest, but the site has returned HTTP 403 to this desk for some weeks — on browser-agent fetches and through Jina alike — so it could not be retrieved or dated and is not cited here. No other verified newsroom carrying the story could be confirmed at the time of writing.