Sri Lanka nursing home worker says a ‘chained’ patient was among 13 fire victims

GALPATHA, Sri Lanka (AP) — One of the residents killed in a fire at an unregistered nursing home in western Sri Lanka had been chained, while another was untied and saved, a staff member said Friday.

Nursing home worker Danuja Chathuranga's comments came as public outrage grew over the treatment allegedly meted out to residents at the home in Galpatha, where 13 people are now known to have died in the blaze that started late Wednesday.

“There were two who were chained,” said Chathuranga. “You only have to take your eyes away for one moment, they run away. One of them had gone one day with the chair he was tied (to) and was found entangled in a barbed wire fence. Another with sores on (their) legs was brought back from a muddy field.”

“Our intention was not to harm them. They were patients receiving psychiatric treatment. If they run away or fall into a pit, well or get run over by a vehicle, we have to take that responsibility,” he said.

The nursing home for people with mental health conditions was abandoned Friday. Glasses cases, medicines and reclining chairs lay strewn around the burned-out shell in the small town about 55 kilometers (34 miles) southeast of the capital, Colombo.

The fire-ravaged nursing home and two other nursing facilities run by the same management are unregistered but government officials and institutions have worked with them.

Amala Rajapaksa, the homes' chief administrator, said residents include referrals from the state's main mental hospital, courts and police. Government doctors visit the residents to treat them.

Authorities transferred 21 fire survivors to another nearby home run by the same management.

The area's government welfare officer declined to comment on the arrangements, citing restrictions on state employees to speak to the media.

Rajapaksa said she has managed the homes for 22 years and that her late husband first started a home in memory of his late father. A few years ago, her stepson Isuru Anushka Perera, who is now in detention for negligence, became the director and popularized the homes through social media.

The home's TikTok videos show a resident doing martial arts moves and others singing and dancing to music with the director, who is known among social media followers as “Loku Ayya,” or older brother.

Rajapaksa said it was a struggle to care for residents until Perera's social media campaign attracted volunteers and donors. Relatives who had the means paid for their resident family members, but others who could not pay were also looked after.

It was not immediately clear how much funding the organization received or how it was used.

On Friday, a victim's family stood near the local hospital morgue awaiting the completion of an autopsy, so they could claim the remains. The father of the victim refused to speak to The Associated Press saying he did not wish to comment on the home's living conditions.

Dolawatta Mudiyanselage Chandra Rajapaksa, the mother of a 45-year-old resident living in another home run by Perera, said she had to keep her son there because she no longer had the strength to care for him.

“He is a mental patient. It's difficult for me to look after him, I am old and in my seventies and a patient myself," she said. She said she brought her son to the home having learned about it “on the phone.”

AP video footage showed the building gutted with charred furniture and equipment. Bodies lay nearby.

Local television showed images of firefighters, police and residents trying to contain the raging fire. Police and soldiers put those rescued on buses to be taken to a safe location.

According to police, 71 people were staying at the home at the time of the fire, of which 50 were rescued by neighbors, firefighters and police. Seven remained hospitalized Friday.

Chathuranga said it is thought the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit in wiring attached to a water pump.

“The fire initially caught a pile of mattresses and pillows and then quickly spread across the house,” he said, adding that the majority of the residents were rescued, but 10 people were caught in the fire and burned to death. Three others have since died in hospital.

Perera, the director of the home, has been arrested on suspicion of causing death through negligence. He appeared in court Thursday and was ordered held for a week pending an investigation.

Chathura Mihudum, director of Sri Lanka's National Secretariat for Elders, said the facility was not registered as a nursing home and had been warned to follow laws and guidelines. He said it was overcrowded, with enough beds for about 15 people in a space where 71 people were living.

Amala Rajapaksa said the institution was in the process of being registered.

Villagers walk through the debris of a nursing home which caught fire in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

The mother of a resident stands outside a dormitory at a nursing home, where inmates of another nursing home that caught fire on Wednesday are being temporarily housed in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Villagers walk checking debris of the charred nursing home in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Friday, June 5, 2026.(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

A resident looks outside from his dormitory at a nursing home in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Friday, June 5, 2026.(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

The mother of a resident stands outside a dormitory at a nursing home in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

A remnants of a charred bed is seen following a fire at a nursing home in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Friday, June 5, 2026.(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

A resident looks at his family members as he sits inside his dormitory at a nursing home in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Sri Lankan police and judiciary officials inspect a charred elderly care home following an overnight fire in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Thursday, June 4, 2026.(AP Photo)

Sri Lankan army soldiers stand outside looking at the debris of a charred elderly care home in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Thursday, June 4, 2026.(AP Photo)

Sri Lankan army soldiers stand outside looking at the debris of a charred elderly care home in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Thursday, June 4, 2026. (AP Photo)

Sri Lankan police and judiciary officials inspect a charred elderly care home following an overnight fire in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Thursday, June 4, 2026. (AP Photo)

A Sri Lankan police officer inspects a charred elderly care home following an overnight fire in Anguruwatota, Sri Lanka, Thursday, June 4, 2026. (AP Photo)

The U.S. stock market had its worst day since October Friday as a sell-off in big technology companies weighed down the broader market and a strong jobs report boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates at some point this year.

The S&P 500 sank 2.6%, its biggest one-day drop since October 10, when the Trump administration threatened to impose a 100% tariff on imported goods from China. The losses helped push the benchmark index to its first losing week in the last 10.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.4%, while the Nasdaq composite slumped 4.2%.

Tech stocks dragged the broader market lower as companies that had powered the S&P 500 to a series of records the past two months saw losses. Nvidia fell 6.2%, Broadcom dropped 7.9% and Micron Technology slid 13.3% for the biggest loss among stocks in the S&P 500.

Shares in Meta fell 5.5% following a published report that the social media giant may seek to do a new stock offering to raise funds for spending on AI infrastructure.

Stocks within the S&P 500 were not far from being evenly split between gainers and losers. But, many of the bigger tech stocks have pricey values that tend to give them outsized influence on the broader market.

Meanwhile, bond yields jumped after a report showed the U.S. added a surprising 172,000 jobs in May, according to the Labor Department. It is the latest report showing that employment remains solid, despite the squeeze inflation is putting on businesses and consumers.

The latest reading on employment comes two weeks before Kevin Warsh heads his first policy meeting as chair of the Fed. Policymakers are widely expected to keep rates steady at the June 16-17 meeting despite pressure from President Donald Trump to lower borrowing costs. Longer-term, the market sees a better than 60% chance the Fed will push rates higher by the end of the year, according to CME FedWatch, and little to no chance of a cut.

“Any hopes of a Fed rate cut have effectively been eliminated with this morning’s strong jobs report,” said Ronald Temple, chief market strategist at Lazard, in a research note.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.54% from 4.50% just before the report was released. The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which more closely tracks the Fed’s actions, jumped to 4.16% from 4.04% just prior to the report.

The Fed has been holding interest rates steady as it tries to gauge the ongoing impact from rising inflation. Prices were already ticking higher from the impact of tariffs. The U.S. war with Iran has essentially blocked crude oil shipments from moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2% to settle at $93.09. It was about $70 per barrel before the war. The surge in oil prices prompted a jump in fuel prices. That has fueled a broader rise in inflation as prices for anything being shipped move higher and threaten to slow economic growth.

A measure of inflation preferred by the Fed showed that prices rose 3.8% overall in April. That marked the biggest increase in two years.

Wall Street has been anticipating that negotiations to end the war will eventually be successful. American and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative deal last week to extend their ceasefire, but the agreement has not been finalized.

The latest round of corporate earnings is coming to a close. Lululemon slumped 8.6% after trimming its revenue and profit forecasts.

Most reports from companies have been surprisingly good and helped Wall Street on its record run. Encouraging profits and forecasts helped overshadow lingering worries about the direction of the economy amid tariffs and high energy costs because of the U.S. war with Iran.

With earnings now in the background, analysts have been warning that the tech companies benefiting from interest in artificial intelligence may have become too expensive. That could result in a slowdown for a market that has posted a solid gain in 2026, with the S&P 500 up 7.9% for the year.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 200.57 points to 7,383.74 on Friday. The Dow dropped 695.15 points to 50,866.78, and the Nasdaq lost 1,121.53 points to close at 25,709.43.

Markets were mixed in Europe after markets in Asia fell.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Specialist John McNierney, left, and trader William Lawrence work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist Anthony Matesic works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A trio of traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A board above the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange displays the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A board above the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange displays the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Currency traders pass by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A screen shows South Korean companies's stock prices related to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who is scheduled to visit South Korea at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)