Sunday Bloody Sunday | World News |Axisoflogic.com

Sri Lankan police stand at the site of an explosion in a restaurant area of the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo AFP / Ishara S. Kodikara

Three more people have died in a new explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s largest city, shortly after some 160 people lost their lives in seven blasts that hit luxury hotels and Catholic churches during Easter celebrations.

A suicide bomber killed three people in central Colombo, AFP reported, citing police.

This adds to the seven explosions that earlier rocked three packed Catholic shrines and four high-end hotels in Sri Lanka, as the island’s Christian worshippers were gathering for Easter masses.

Reuters / Dinuka Liyanawatte

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the apparently coordinated attacks. Sri Lanka’s defense ministry has declared a curfew, which is set to last from 6pm to 6am. But Sri Lanka’s police chief reportedly received warning about possible bombing attacks by radical Islamist group NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath) 10 days before Sunday’s blasts.

According to an alert cited by AFP, the warning came from “a foreign intelligence agency.”

The numbers have been reported by AFP, citing a police official. Hospital sources have said the victims include American, British and Dutch citizens. More than 400 people were injured in the blasts.

Sri Lanka has not seen violence on this scale since the end of the civil war against Tamil Tigers militants in 2009. However, there have been multiple reports of minority religious groups – including Christians, which constitute about 7 percent of the country's worshipers, and Muslims, about 10 percent – being harassed and attacked by Buddhist monks.

Source URL