Oct 31, Colombo: The Sri Lankan Army has found heavy artillery guns and a fast attack craft hidden by Sri Lanka's defeated Tamil Tiger terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) following the flooding of the coastal areas in the North.

The flooding brought on by the Cyclone Neelam along the coastal areas of northeastern Sri Lanka has exposed the heavy weaponry hidden in the Vellamullivaikkal beach in Mullaitivu, the last battleground of the war.

The Army has recovered five artillery guns - four 152-mm canons and one 132-mm canon and a boat with two 120-horse power engines, Army Spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya said Wednesday.

The Spokesman said the Tigers had buried the cache along the coast and it was exposed due to the storm surge in the area.

The weaponry has been discovered from the beach in close proximity to Jordanian ship Farah III which was run aground and captured by the LTTE in December 2006.

The government has constantly accused the LTTE of firing artillery pieces in the final stages of the war from the no-fire zone where the civilians were sheltering to provoke the military to return fire.

"We knew that the terrorists used heavy weapons, but this is physical evidence of their big artillery guns," Wanigasuriya has told AFP.

"Tigers fired these artillery pieces from areas where the civilians were sheltering in the final stages of the war," AFP quoted Wanigasuriya as saying.