Death toll from Sri Lanka Easter attacks rises to 290 as police announce new arrests

The death toll from bomb blasts that ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka rose dramatically Monday, April 22 to 290 – including dozens of foreigners – as police announced new arrests over the country’s worst attacks for more than a decade.

More than 500 people were injured in the Easter Sunday assault that saw suicide bombers hit three high-end hotels popular with foreign tourists, and three churches, unleashing carnage in Colombo and beyond.

Two additional blasts were triggered as security forces carried out raids searching for suspects.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but police said Monday 24 people had been arrested.

Wary of stirring ethnic and religious tensions, the government gave few details about those in custody, but senior police sources said 13 detained in an initial round of arrests were all suspected members of an “extremist” group.

Some Sri Lankans asked how the attacks could have happened after it emerged there had been a warning about possible blasts.

Police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers on April 11, warning that suicide bombers from a group called the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), a radical Muslim group linked to the vandalization of Buddhist statues, planned to hit “prominent churches.”

As tension remained high, police on Monday said they had found 87 bomb detonators – 12 of them scattered on the ground at the Bastian Mawatha Private bus stand and another 75 in a nearby garbage dump.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said an investigation would look into “why adequate precautions were not taken.”

President Maithripala Sirisena, meanwhile, who was abroad at the time of the attacks, returned Monday and was chairing a security council meeting, his office said.

Nationwide curfew

A nationwide curfew imposed after the blasts was lifted early Monday and life returned gradually to the streets of the capital, though the government has ordered a two-day holiday and schools and the Colombo stock exchange were closed.

But the country remained on edge as a home-made bomb was defused at Colombo airport late Sunday and massive security deployed.

The attacks were the worst ever carried out against Sri Lanka’s small Christian minority, who make up just seven percent of the 21 million population.

At least 37 foreigners were among the dead, citizens of Australia, India, Japan, Portugal, Turkey and the United Kingdom, as well as a dual U.S.-British passport holder.

The churches targeted included St. Sebastian’s in Negombo, north of the capital, which was surrounded by security forces on Monday.

Dozens of people were killed at the church, including friends of 16-year-old Primasha Fernando, who was at her home nearby when the suicide bomber struck.

“When I got to the church there were people crying and screaming,” she told AFP.

“I saw bodies everywhere,” she added in tears. “I saw parents carrying their dead babies. I saw dead people who had hair but didn’t have faces anymore.”

“Hands and legs were separate from bodies. There was blood everywhere too. The smell was so strong it made me feel sick.”

The church’s roof was largely blown out and pews splintered. The floor was strewn with roof tiles and shards of glass.

Outside, 24-year-old Denver Malewama and his mother Sunita handed out tea to security personnel.

“We want to say thank you because they protect us,” he said.

Memories of civil war

Ethnic and religious violence has plagued Sri Lanka for decades, with a 37-year conflict with Tamil rebels followed by an upswing in recent years in clashes between the Buddhist majority and Muslims.

Dilip Fernando, who could not get into St. Sebastian’s because the church was already packed when he arrived, said the Christian community would not be intimidated.

“We are not afraid. We won’t let the terrorists win, no way,” the 66-year-old told AFP outside the devastated building.

Two leading Muslim groups issued statements condemning the attacks, with the All Ceylon Jamiyaathuul Ulama, a council of Muslim theologians, urging the “maximum punishment for everyone involved in these dastardly acts.”

For many, the blasts stirred painful memories of Sri Lanka’s civil war, when bomb attacks were a frequent occurrence.

“The string of blasts brings back memories of the time when we were afraid to go in buses or trains because of parcel bombs,” said Malathi Wickrama, a street sweeper in Colombo.

In total, three churches in Colombo, Negombo and the east-coast town of Batticaloa were attacked, along with three luxury hotels in the capital.

A manager at the Cinnamon Grand, near the prime minister’s official residence in Colombo, said a suicide bomber blew himself up at a breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant.

“He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast,” the manager said.

Two further blasts happened as police staged raids looking for suspects. At least three police officers were killed in one raid.

Premier Wickremesinghe urged people to “hold our unity as Sri Lankans” and pledged to “wipe out this menace once and for all.”

The archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith, described the attackers as “animals” and called on authorities to “punish them mercilessly.”

Embassies in Colombo warned foreign nationals to stay inside and there were chaotic scenes at Colombo airport.

With reporting from AFP. This post was updated on April 22.