Police chief ‘warned of attacks’ ten days ago

Sri Lanka’s police chief warned of potential suicide bombing plots on ‘prominent churches’ ten days before attacks which killed at least 207 people, it has been reported.

News agency AFP reported police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers ten days ago, warning that “a foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo.”

No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks. The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that was linked last year to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues.

The secretary-general of the world’s largest organisation of Muslim nations has condemned the attacks.