At least 207 people were killed and hundreds more injured in eight blasts that rocked churches and hotels in and just outside Sri Lanka’s capital on Easter Sunday, officials said, pitching the nation into the worst chaos it has seen since a bloody civil war ended a decade ago.
Sri Lankan Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardena, who described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, told reporters yesterday evening that seven suspects had been arrested, although no one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the violence could trigger instability in the country and its economy.
Photo: AFP
Since the end of the nation’s 26-year civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers sought independence from the ethnic Sinhala Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka, the country has seen sporadic ethnic and religious violence, but the scale of yesterday’s bloodshed recalled the worst days of the war, when the Tigers and other rebels set off explosions at the central bank in Colombo, a busy shopping mall, an important Buddhist temple and hotels.
Wickremesinghe said his government would “vest all necessary powers with the defense forces” to take action against those responsible” for the attacks, “regardless of their stature.”
The nearly simultaneous first six blasts yesterday morning toppled ceilings and blew out windows at a famous Catholic church in Colombo and at three luxury hotels in the city.
Photo: Reuters
The other two occurred at the Protestant Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa and at St Sebastian Catholic Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, where footage showed people dragging the injured out of blood-splattered pews.
Three police officers were killed while conducting a search operation at a suspected safe house in Dematagoda, on the outskirts of Colombo.
After police moved into Dematagoda, at least two more blasts occurred, with the occupants of a safe house apparently blasting explosives to prevent arrest.
Shops were closed and streets deserted in Colombo even before the government imposed a nationwide curfew from 6pm to 6am.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said 207 people were killed and 450 wounded in the blasts.
Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers, a senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
Worshipers and hotel guests were among the dead, the official said.
Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary Ravinath Aryasinghe said the bodies of 27 foreigners were recovered from the blast sites.
Nations 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.
Speaking from the loggia of St Peter’s Basilica, Francis said: “I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence.”
The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on the Sri Lankan government to launch a “very impartial strong inquiry” and to punish those found responsible “mercilessly because only animals can behave like that.”
In Taipei, the Tourism Bureau said none of the nation’s major travel agencies have tour groups in Colombo.
“We have not received any report from travel agencies that any of their guests were affected by the incident. We have asked some of the nation’s major travel agencies, including SET Tour (東南旅遊), Lion Travel (雄獅旅遊), Richmond International Travel and Tour Co (山富國際) and Cola Tour (可樂旅遊), and none of them currently has tour groups in Colombo,” the bureau said.
The bureau said the Taipei Economic and Culture Center in Chennai, India, had not received reports on deaths or injuries of Taiwanese tourists.
The bureau said it and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would monitor the situation.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
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