May 05, Mahiyanganaya: Sri Lanka's main opposition party leader Ranil Wickremasinghe had to stay at Mahiyanganya police station for about an hour, as the helicopter he was traveling had to make an emergency landing, this evening.

The US built BELL 212 helicopter of Sri Lanka Air Force was carrying Mr. Wickremasinghe from Batticaloa to Colombo when it encountered a technical failure and landed on a playground, police sources said. Later, another Air Force helicopter had taken him back to Colombo, the sources added.

Last week, Wickremasinghe accused the government for not facilitating helicopter transportation for him to travel to the Eastern province to carry out opposition election rallies. However, the government refuted the allegation saying that opposition leader had purposely requested the air passage on the day that Iranian president arrived in the country when all the Air Force helicopters were under full alert.