Jan 31, Colombo: Another 561 Tamil families consisting of 2441 persons have now arrived in the government controlled areas of Sittandy and Vavunathivu from the Toppigala area, Sri Lanka military said.

“These people have come from LTTE held areas fearing the LTTE will use them as ‘human shields’ and to prepare bunkers and trenches,” military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.

He said action has been taken to provide food and other essential items to those displaced people in cleared areas.

Another 170 people from 48 families consisting of 39 males, 72 females, 29 boys and 30 girls have escaped from Toppigala area to cleared areas yesterday.