{"id":77418,"date":"2018-05-16T15:51:50","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T22:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=77418"},"modified":"2018-05-16T15:51:50","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T22:51:50","slug":"durham-rugby-player-thomas-howards-sri-lanka-death-unexplained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/05\/16\/durham-rugby-player-thomas-howards-sri-lanka-death-unexplained\/","title":{"rendered":"Durham rugby player Thomas Howard’s Sri Lanka death unexplained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy BBC<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Police in Sri Lanka are investigating whether drugs contributed to the death of a British amateur rugby player who died in the country.<\/p>\n

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Thomas Howard, 25, from Durham and team-mate Thomas Baty, 26, died after visiting a nightclub in Colombo during a rugby tour.<\/p>\n

Post-mortem tests on Mr Howard found no injury or natural causes for his death.<\/p>\n

Further tests have been ordered but police confirmed to the BBC they were looking at whether drugs played a part.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas
\nImage copyright<\/span>DCRFC<\/span>Image caption<\/span>Thomas Baty (left) and Thomas Howard complained of breathing difficulties on Sunday after going to a nightclub<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The BBC has also seen a preliminary report into Mr Howard’s post-mortem examination, which states the cause of his death needs further investigation.<\/p>\n

Tissue, blood and other samples have been sent for analysis, it confirms.<\/p>\n

Sri Lankan health minister Rajitha Senarathane said the chief judicial medical officer “couldn’t find the correct diagnosis for the cause of the death”.<\/p>\n

“From the post-mortem they can’t find anything so they have taken certain organs of the body and they have sent it to the government analysts,” he said.<\/p>\n