Colombo - Authorities lifted a curfew in
Sri Lanka on Monday, a day after a string of bombings at
churches and luxury hotels across the Indian Ocean island killed
290 people and wounded about 500, but there were warnings more
attacks could come.
There was no claim of responsibility for the Easter Sunday
attacks on two churches and four hotels in and around Colombo,
the capital of predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka, and a third
church on the South Asian nation's northeast coast.
Four of the bombs went off at roughly the same time, at 8.45
a.m., with the other two coming within 20 minutes.
Sri Lankans accounted for the bulk of the dead and wounded
although government officials said 32 foreigners were killed,
including British, U.S., Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch
and Portuguese nationals.
President Maithripala Sirisena, who was abroad when the
attacks happened, had called a meeting of the National Security
Council early on Monday, a government source said. Prime
Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would attend the meeting, the
source said.
The Sri Lankan military, who were clearing the route from
Colombo airport late on Sunday in preparation for Sirisena's
return, found a crude bomb near the departure gate, an air force
spokesman said.
They destroyed the device in a controlled explosion.
Relatives of victims of the explosion at St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church react at the police mortuary in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Picture: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters
There were fears the attacks could spark a renewal of
communal violence, with police also reporting late on Sunday
there had been a petrol bomb attack on a mosque in the northwest
and arson attacks on two shops owned by Muslims in the west.
Sri Lanka was at war for decades with ethnic minority Tamil
separatists but violence had largely ended since the government
victory in the civil war, 10 years ago.
Sri Lanka's 22 million people include Christian, Muslim and
Hindu populations of between about eight and 12 percent.
Security forces raided a house in Colombo on Sunday
afternoon, several hours after the attack. Police reported an
explosion at the house and said three officers were killed.
Police said on Monday 24 people had been arrested, all of
whom were Sri Lankan.
The U.S. State Department issued a revised travel warning
that said terrorist groups were continuing to plot.
"Terrorists may attack with little or no warning," it said
in the warning, which was set at two on a scale on which four
means do not travel.
Possible targets included tourist spots, transport hubs,
shopping malls, hotels, places of worship, airports and other
public areas, it said.
A foreigner checks his mobile phone while waiting outside a mortuary of a hospital, a day after series of blasts, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Picture: Eranga Jayawardena/AP
SOCIAL MEDIA BLOCKED
The island-wide curfew was lifted early on Monday, although
there was uncharacteristically thin traffic in the normally
bustling capital.
Soldiers with automatic weapons stood guard outside major
hotels and the World Trade Centre in the business district,
where the four hotels were targeted on Sunday, according to a
Reuters witness.
Scores of people who were stranded overnight at the main
airport began making their way home as restrictions were lifted.
The government also blocked access to social media and
messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp, making
information hard to gather.
Wickremsinghe acknowledged on Sunday that the government had
some prior information about possible attacks on churches
involving a little-known Islamist group but said ministers had
not been told.
Police officers work at the scene at St. Sebastian Catholic Church, after bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels on Easter in Negambo. Picture: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters
A British mother and son eating breakfast at the luxury
Shangri-La hotel were among those killed, British media
reported.
An Australian survivor, identified only as Sam, told
Australia's 3AW radio the hotel was a scene of "absolute
carnage".
He said he and a travel partner were also having breakfast
at the Shangri-La when two blasts went off. He said he had seen
two men wearing backpacks seconds before the blasts.
"There were people screaming and dead bodies all around," he
said. "Kids crying, kids on the ground, I don't know if they
were dead or not, just crazy."
There were similar scenes of carnage at two churches in or
near Colombo, and a third church in the northeast town of
Batticaloa, where worshippers had gathered for Easter Sunday
services. Pictures from the scene showed bodies on the ground
and blood-spattered pews and statues.
Dozens were killed in one of the blasts at the Gothic-style
St. Sebastian church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo. Police
said they suspected that blast was a suicide attack.