At least 137 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, police and hospital sources say.
At least seven blasts were reported. Three churches in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo’s Kochchikade district were targeted during Easter services.
The Shangri-La, Kingsbury, Cinnamon Grand and a fourth hotel, all in Colombo, were also hit.
A curfew has been imposed from 18:00 to 06:00 local time (12:30-00:30 GMT).
The government also said there would a temporary block on the use of major social media networks.
BBC reports that no group has yet said it was responsible for the attacks.
St Sebastian’s church in Negombo was severely damaged. Images on social media showed its inside, with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews. At least 67 people are reported to have died there.
There were heavy casualties too at the site of the first blast in St Anthony’s, a hugely popular shrine in Kochchikade, a district of Colombo.
Among those killed in Colombo were at least nine foreign nationals, hospital sources told the BBC.
Hospital sources in Batticaloa said at least 27 people had died there.
A hotel official at the Cinnamon Grand, near the prime minister’s official residence, told AFP the explosion there had ripped through a restaurant, killing at least one person.
A seventh explosion was later reported at a hotel near the zoo in Dehiwala, southern Colombo, with police sources reporting two deaths. The zoo has been closed.
News is coming in of a possible eighth explosion and exchange of gunfire in the Colombo district of Dematagoda, but this has not yet been confirmed.
Colombo resident Usman Ali told the BBC there were massive queues as he joined people trying to donate blood.
He said: “Everyone had just one intention and that was to help the victims of the blast, no matter what religion or race they may be. Each person was helping another out in filling forms.”
BBC
