Death toll in the Sri Lanka bombings jumps to 290 as authorities say they defused an explosive near Colombo’s main airport
By Joanna Slater , Joanna Slater Foreign correspondent covering South Asia Email Bio Follow Amantha Perera and Shibani Mahtani Shibani Mahtani Reporter covering Southeast Asia Email Bio Follow April 21 at 11:44 PM Explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka killed 290 people and injured more than 500 Sunday. This is what we know so far:● Churches attacked as worshipers gathered for Easter services.
“It was like the past had come back,” he said, referring to Sri Lanka’s long-running civil war that ended in 2009. But even at the worst points of the war, “the church was someplace safe.” In that time, tourism in Sri Lanka had been steadily growing, the country transformed by the apparent end of instability, bloodshed and frequent suicide bombings over the 26-year war.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks. Attention is now focusing on why and how the government and security forces were unable to foil the bombings, which they apparently had earlier knowledge of. Images of splintered pews and bloodstained floors played across local television screens Sunday as the enormity of the attacks, launched on the holiest day of the Christian calendar, became clear.
Blasts ripped through three churches in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa at approximately 8:45 a.m. Sunday as worshipers were gathering for services, police said. Two people at the Shangri-La Hotel described a powerful explosion that made the ground shake just before 9 a.m. Photos showed broken windows and shattered glass on a street next to the hotel.
Sri Lankan authorities announced a nationwide curfew, which was lifted by Monday morning. They blocked Facebook and the messaging application WhatsApp in an attempt to halt the spread of false and inflammatory messages. Security was heightened at churches across the country, and the streets of Colombo grew quiet and deserted as the curfew took effect.
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