Two new blasts on Sunday hit Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo hours after 156 people were killed and 400 injured in six bombings on churches and hotels.
Police said the seventh explosion occurred at a hotel near the national zoo in the capital, killing at least two more people while the eighth blast was caused by a suicide bomber in the suburb of Orugodawatta, north of Colombo.
A police source told AFP that three police officers were killed when the suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a residence the police were searching.
Three churches where worshippers were attending Easter Sunday services recorded more victims.
Three other bombings struck luxury hotels – the Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Shangri-La – located in the heart of Colombo, no less than 35 foreigners died in the blasts.
St Anthony’s Shrine located in the capital was the first to be hit. Five other blasts followed within half an hour, including the bombings on St Sebastian’s church in Negombo, some 30km from the capital, another occurred in Batticaloa, 250km east of the capital.
