At least 290 dead in Sri Lanka attacks

CNN.com

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) -- The Latest on explosions in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday (all times local):

4:40 p.m.

Sri Lanka's minister of tourism says 39 foreign tourists were killed in the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels, while another 28 were wounded.

John Amaratunga says his ministry is working closely with the ministry of foreign affairs and local diplomatic missions to "ensure formalities with regard to the victims are sorted out as quickly as possible."

In Monday's statement he added, "The government has already offered assistance to all victims, the damaged places of worship as well as the hotels affected by Sunday's attacks."

He said Sri Lanka's tourism industry and the government was doing everything possible to ensure the safety of those in the country.
A total of nine bombings Sunday killed at least 290 people and wounded about 500 more.

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4:30 p.m.
A van parked near a Sri Lankan church that was bombed on Easter Sunday has exploded, but no injuries have been reported.
Police went to inspect the van Monday after people reported it had been parked near St. Anthony's Shrine since Sunday.
They discovered three bombs that they tried to defuse. Instead, the bombs detonated, sending pedestrians fleeing in panic.
A series of bombings Sunday killed at least 290 people, including at least 27 foreigners. About 500 others were wounded in the blasts.
Officials said 24 suspects are in custody for questioning
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4:30 p.m.
Sri Lankan authorities say they've found 87 bomb detonators in the capital, Colombo.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekaran said police found 12 detonators scattered at Colombo's main bus depot on Monday and hours later found another 75 detonators at a garbage dump in the same area.
No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing.
Gunasekara declined to say whether the detonators were linked to a series of bombs that rocked churches, hotels and other sites on Sunday, killing at least 290 people.
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4:30 p.m.
Danish media are saying that three of the four children of a Danish business tycoon who is allegedly the Nordic country's richest man and a major private landowner in Britain died in the Sri Lanka bombings.
Danish broadcaster TV2 Monday cited information it received from the Bestseller clothing chain, of which Anders Holch Povlsen is the sole owner. The company didn't provide any further information "out of respect to the family."
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet said the 46-year-old Holch Povlsen and his wife, Anne Holch Povlsen, were vacationing in Sri Lanka with their children.
Holch Povlsen is Britain's second-largest and Scotland's-largest private landowner and the biggest shareholder in fashion retailer ASOS.com.
The Danish foreign ministry confirmed that three Danish citizens were killed in the Sri Lankan attacks, which claimed over 200 lives.
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4 p.m.
Sri Lanka's top diplomat in Britain says authorities know of eight British nationals killed in the Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and hotels in and around Colombo.
High Commissioner to the UK Manisha Gunasekera told BBC Monday that "as of now" it is believed eight British nationals died. She said the investigation is moving "very swiftly."
British officials have said only that some Britons died. They have not provided information on the number of British casualties. More details are expected to emerge later Monday.
Sri Lanka is a popular holiday destination for Britons.
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2:25 p.m.
A Sri Lankan government official says a local militant group named National Thowfeek Jamaath is responsible for the Easter Sunday suicide bombings.
Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said at a news conference Monday that all seven bombers linked to the near-simultaneous attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels in and around Colombo were Sri Lankan citizens.
Officials say the causes of three later bombings on Sunday are still being investigated.
He said that while the group is domestic, foreign links are suspected.
A total of nine bombings Sunday killed at least 290 people including at least 27 foreigners. About 500 others were wounded in the blasts.
Officials said 24 suspects are in custody for questioning.

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By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI and KRISHAN FRANCIS Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — At least 207 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in eight bomb blasts that rocked churches and luxury hotels in or near Sri Lanka's capital on Easter Sunday — the deadliest violence the South Asian island country has seen since a bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the bombings as a terrorist attack by religious extremists and said seven suspects had been arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Wijewardena said most of the blasts were believed to have been suicide attacks.

The explosions collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, and the dead included worshippers and hotel guests. People were seen carrying the wounded out of blood-spattered pews.

The three bombed hotels and one of the churches, St. Anthony's Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lanka's foreign secretary said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners were recovered. Sri Lankan TV said the dead included people from Belgium, China, Britain and the U.S.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the violence could trigger instability in Sri Lanka, a country of about 21 million people, and he vowed the government will "vest all necessary powers with the defense forces" to take action against those responsible for the massacre, "regardless of their stature." The government imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The scale of the bloodshed recalled the worst days of the nation's 26-year civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from Sri Lanka, a Buddhist-majority country. During the war, the Tigers and other rebels carried out a multitude of bombings.

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on Sri Lanka's government to "mercilessly" punish those responsible "because only animals can behave like that."

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said 207 people were killed and 450 wounded.

The first six blasts Sunday morning took place nearly simultaneously at St. Anthony's Shrine, a Catholic church in Colombo, and three hotels in the city. The two other explosions occurred after a lull of a few hours at St. Sebastian Catholic church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at the Protestant Zion church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

Three police officers were killed while conducting a search at a suspected safe house in Dematagoda, on the outskirts of Colombo. The occupants of the safe house apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, Wijewardena said.

Countries around the world condemned the attacks, and Pope Francis expressed condolences at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing in Rome.

"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," Francis said.

Sri Lanka, a small island nation at the southern tip of India, has a long history with Christianity. Christian tradition holds that St. Thomas the Apostle visited Sri Lanka and southern India in the decades after the death of Christ. The majority of the island's Christians are Roman Catholic.

Local TV showed damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels. The Shangri-La's second-floor restaurant was gutted, with the ceiling and windows blown out. Loose wires hung and tables were overturned in the blackened space. From outside the police cordon, three bodies could be seen covered in white sheets.

Foreign tourists hurriedly took to their cellphones to text family and loved ones around the world that they were OK.

One group was on a 15-day tour of the tropical island nation, seeing such sites as huge Buddhist monuments, tea plantations, jungle eco-lodges and sandy beaches. The tour was supposed to end in Colombo, but tour operators said the group may skip the capital in light of the attacks. The tour started last week in Negombo, where one of the blasts struck.

"Having experienced the open and welcoming Sri Lanka during my last week traveling through the country, I had a sense that the country was turning the corner, and in particular those in the tourism industry were hopeful for the future," said Peter Kelson, a technology manager from Sydney.

"Apart from the tragedy of the immediate victims of the bombings, I worry that these terrible events will set the country back significantly."

Sri Lankan security forces defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009. The United Nations initially estimated the death toll from the civil war at 100,000, but a U.N. expert panel later said some 45,000 ethnic Tamils may have been killed in the last months of the fighting alone. Both sides were accused of grave human rights violations.

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