Everything you need to know about devastating Sri Lanka bombings

Greater Noida (22/4/2019)

A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through several high-end hotels and three churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing nearly 300 people and wounding 500 others.

The first blast was reported at St Anthony’s Shrine, a historic Roman Catholic church in Colombo, just as church services began around 8:45 am local time (03:15 GMT). The other two occurred at St Sebastian Catholic Church in Negombo and soon after a blast was reported at a guesthouse near the national zoo in Colombo’s Dehiwala district. The eighth explosion took place at a house in Colombo.

For now the Sri Lankan government believes a local Islamist extremist group called the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) was behind the deadly suicide bomb attacks that killed nearly 300 people, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said Monday. Police source told AFP that all 24 people in custody in connection with the attacks belong to an “extremist” group, but did not specify further.

Countries around the world condemned the attacks, and Pope Francis added an appeal at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing to address the attacks.