The deadly blasts in Sri Lanka on Sunday killed at least 290 people and left hundreds more injured. Monday has been a day of search and rescue, victim identification, and grief and condolences expressed worldwide.
A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing 290 people, including dozens of foreigners. The apparently coordinated attacks were the deadliest to hit the country in the decade since the end of a bloody civil war that killed up to 100,000 people and evoked painful memories for many Sri Lankans. They also marked a devastating escalation of violence against the country's Christian minority that has been targeted in the past, but never to such brutal effect.
The explosions blew out the tiled roofs of churches and hotel windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in the process.
Images and footage showed bloodied pews, broken glass, and plumes of smoke.
"You can see pieces of flesh thrown all over the walls and on the sanctuary and even outside of the church," Father Edmond Tillekeratne, social communications director for the Archdiocese of Colombo, told CNN from St. Sebastian's Church, one of the explosion sites.
He estimated that more than a thousand people had come to the church for Easter Sunday "because it is a special day."
Here's what we know:
- Officials say 290 people were killed and another 500 injured in the suicide attacks
- Most of the dead are Sri Lankan nationals, but 31 people from other countries are believed to have been killed
- No-one has admitted carrying out the bombings. The government has blamed a local jihadist group known as the National Thowheed Jamath which it said had the support of an "international network"
- Police have so far arrested 24 people in a series of raids
- There was another blast on Monday near a church in the capital, Colombo, as security forces tried to defuse explosives inside a vehicle used by the attackers
- Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said authorities were "aware of information" of possible attacks but the intelligence was not acted upon
- A nationwide emergency, which will give police and military extensive powers to detain and interrogate suspects, will be declared from midnight (18:30 GMT) on Monday
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