COLOMBO: A string of blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing at least 215 people, including 35 foreigners.
Images circulating on social media and local news stations showed extensive damage at one of three churches targeted in the near simultaneous blasts on Sunday morning.
The injured flooded into local hospitals, where officials reported hundreds of wounded were being admitted.The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no immediate claims of responsibility.
The first blast was reported at St Anthony’s Shrine, a well-known Catholic church in the capital Colombo.A second deadly explosion was then confirmed at St Sebastian’s, a church in the town of Negombo, north of the capital.
Countries around the world condemned the attacks, and Pope Francis added an appeal at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing to address the massacre.
President Maithripala Sirisena said in an address that he was shocked by the explosions and appealed for calm, and the prime minister was expected to speak to the media shortly.On Twitter, Wickremesinghe wrote: “I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today.
PM Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attacks as “cowardly” and said the government was working to “contain the situation”.Shops were closed and streets deserted in Colombo even before the government imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene, who described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, told reporters Sunday evening that seven suspects had been arrested, though no one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts.
British Prime Minister Teresa May said on Twitter, “We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to (practice) their faith in fear.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the blasts “an assault on all of humanity,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced them as “cruel and cynical.”
