COLOMBO, March 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Sri Lanka's Army fired in the air Friday in a bid to quell rioting civilians after a military vehicle had run over a student, police said Friday.

    A 12-year-old girl was knocked down by a speeding military tractor around 8.30 a.m. (0230 GMT), triggering angry protests from the Tamil civilians.

    The civilians had set fire to a military vehicle, a political office and a military sentry point near the Jaffna hospital, military sources said.

    The international truce monitors, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), said despite the running tensions the situation was very much under control.

    The northern Jaffna district, the cultural capital of the minority Tamils, fell under government control in December 1995 from the grasp of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

    During the last three years under the ongoing ceasefire there have been isolated incidents of Tamil civilian clashes with the government forces. Enditem