EASTER ATTACKS LEAVE AT LEAST 138 DEAD:
AT least 138 people were killed and hundreds more hospitalised from injuries in near-simultaneous blasts that rocked three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday — the worst violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago.
Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers, according to an official. Worshippers and hotel guests were among the dead, the official said.
No one had claimed responsibility for the blasts last night.
St Anthony’s Shrine and the three hotels where the blasts took place are in Colombo, and are frequented by foreign tourists. A National Hospital spokesman, Dr. Samindi Samarakoon, said they received 47 dead, including nine foreigners, and were treating more than 200 wounded.
Local TV showed damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels. The Shangri-La’s second-floor restaurant was gutted in the blast, with the ceiling and windows blown out. Loose wires hung and tables were overturned in the blackened space.
A police magistrate was at the hotel to inspect the bodies recovered from the restaurant. From outside the police cordon, three bodies could be seen covered in white sheets.
Alex Agieleson, who was near the shrine, said buildings shook with the blast, and a number of injured people were carried away in ambulances.
Other blasts were reported at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.
Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas.
There were reports last night of another explosion at a motel Colombo that killed at least two people, a police spokesman said, just before 7pm today.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the blast hit a motel in the southern suburb of Dehiwala.