{"id":77392,"date":"2018-05-15T15:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T22:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=77392"},"modified":"2018-05-15T15:00:27","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T22:00:27","slug":"probe-begins-into-deaths-of-british-rugby-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/05\/15\/probe-begins-into-deaths-of-british-rugby-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Probe begins into deaths of British rugby players"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Courtesy Gulf Times<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0A second visiting English amateur rugby player has died in a Sri Lankan hospital after visiting a night club and police are now investigating the circumstances, a spokesman said yesterday.
\nThomas Howard, 25, and Tom Baty, 26, developed breathing difficulties on Sunday morning after returning from the club in Colombo and were rushed to the main state-run hospital in the capital.
\nHoward died shortly after admission, police said. Baty was transferred to the intensive care unit of a private hospital where he died yesterday, a police
\nstatement said.
\nAn autopsy on Howard has revealed that he did not die due to any external injuries or any illness,\u201d said police spokesman Ruwan
\nGunasekera.
\nThe spokesman added that a judicial medical officer had given an open verdict\u201d on the deaths and further forensic tests are being carried out\u201d.
\nGunasekera said the two men from Durham City rugby club in the northeast of England had played a friendly against the local Ceylonese Rugby and Football Club on Saturday.
\nAfter the match, the team visited a night club and returned to their hotel in small groups early Sunday, police said.
\nWe don\u2019t have a cause of death yet and investigations are ongoing,\u201d Gunasekera said.
\nThe British high commission (embassy) said it was supporting the families of the two men and was in contact with local
\nauthorities.
\nDurham City, in a message posted on its website, said the Howard and Baty families have requested that their right to
\nprivacy is respected\u201d.
\nThe team arrived in Sri Lanka on May 9 and began the tour with a game against Ceylonese Rugby and Football Club (CR & FC) in Colombo.
\nAccording to police in Sri Lanka, some British players went to Colombo\u2019s Cleopatra nightclub after the match and returned to their hotel in the early hours of Sunday.
\nThe two players complained of breathing difficulties to the hotel management at about 10 on Sunday and were taken to Nawaloka Hospital.
\nPolice are examining CCTV from the nightclub in an effort to establish the players\u2019
\nmovements.
\nTributes to the pair from other rugby clubs across the UK have been made on social media.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Gulf Times \u00a0A second visiting English amateur rugby player has died in a Sri Lankan hospital after visiting a night club and police are now investigating the circumstances, a spokesman said yesterday. Thomas Howard, 25, and Tom Baty, 26, developed breathing difficulties on Sunday morning after returning from the club in Colombo and were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}