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		</div><p><b>Latest:</b> 207 people have been killed and 450 were injured in a series of explosions which ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, authorities have said.</p>
<p>No one has taken responsibility for the killings, but officials say seven suspects have been arrested.</p>
<p>The Easter attacks are the worst bloodshed Sri Lanka has seen since its brutal civil war ended a decade ago.</p>
<p>Foreign nationals are among the dead, with Dutch, Chinese and Portuguese fatalities confirmed.</p>
<p>Five Britons are confirmed to have died, with British Prime Minister Theresa May saying the massacre was “truly appalling”, and “no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear”.</p>
<p>Six nearly simultaneous explosions at churches and hotels killed scores of people in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.</p>
<p>Hours later there were further explosions in Dehiwala and Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo.</p>
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<p>In Colombo, St Anthony’s Shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels were targeted in the first wave of explosions.</p>
<p>Other blasts were reported at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.</p>
<figure id="attachment_130641" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130641" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/15BCF643-F69B-43FF-BFEA-2467D2EC3EE4.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-130641" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/15BCF643-F69B-43FF-BFEA-2467D2EC3EE4.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="379" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-130641" class="wp-caption-text">The blood-spattered wall and statute of Jesus Christ inside St Sebastian’s Church, Negombo</figcaption></figure>
<p>Julian Emmanuel and his family, from Surrey, were staying at the Cinnamon Grand when the bomb went off.</p>
<p>He told the BBC: “We were in our room and heard a large explosion. It woke us up. There were ambulances, fire crews, police sirens.</p>
<p>“I came out of the room to see what’s happening, we were ushered downstairs.</p>
<p>“We were told there had been a bomb. Staff said some people were killed. One member of staff told me it was a suicide bomber.”</p>
<p><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/AB6474FC-B8AE-4FC6-A989-D651DC39A151.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-130642" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/AB6474FC-B8AE-4FC6-A989-D651DC39A151.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="338" /></a></p>
<h2 class="in-article">Earlier: At least 138 killed in Easter Sunday explosions in Sri Lanka</h2>
<p>At least 138 people were killed and hundreds more injured in near-simultaneous explosions that rocked three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.</p>
<p>The attacks mark the worst bout of violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago.</p>
<p>Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers.</p>
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<p>The magnitude of the bloodshed recalled Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, when separatist Tamil Tigers and other rebel groups targeted the Central Bank, a shopping centre, a Buddhist temple and hotels popular with tourists.</p>
<p>No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s blasts.</p>
<p>Sri Lanka has long faced a bitter ethnic divide between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils, fuelling the civil war as Tamil militants tried to carve out their own homeland.</p>
<p>But in the years since the war ended in 2009, a religious divide has grown, with the rise of Buddhist nationalist groups that stoke anger against the minority Muslims, saying they are stealing from Buddhist temples or desecrating them, or forcing people to convert to Islam</p>
<p>Muslims also own many of Sri Lanka’s small shops, and many Muslims suspect small-town jealousy has led to some attacks.</p>
<p>Sinhalese are overwhelmingly Buddhists, while Tamils are mostly Hindu, Muslim and Christian.</p>
<p>St Anthony’s Shrine and the three hotels where Sunday’s blasts took place are in Colombo, the capital, and are frequented by foreign tourists.</p>
<figure id="attachment_130643" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130643" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/8DA3FD2A-E7E0-4FAF-A301-86F6C3A6DF62.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-130643" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/8DA3FD2A-E7E0-4FAF-A301-86F6C3A6DF62.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="390" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-130643" class="wp-caption-text">An elderly woman is helped near St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo</figcaption></figure>
<p>A National Hospital spokesman, Dr Samindi Samarakoon, said it had received 47 dead there, including nine foreigners, and staff were treating more than 200 wounded.</p>
<p>Local TV showed damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels.</p>
<p>The Shangri-La’s second-floor restaurant was gutted in the blast, with the ceiling and windows blown out.</p>
<figure id="attachment_130644" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130644" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/7483F5DA-BA0C-4CCE-A617-8DD6B2953BD6.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-130644" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/7483F5DA-BA0C-4CCE-A617-8DD6B2953BD6.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="360" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-130644" class="wp-caption-text">Damage at the Shangri-la hotel in Colombo</figcaption></figure>
<p>A magistrate was at the hotel to inspect the bodies recovered from the restaurant. From outside the police cordon, three bodies could be seen covered in white sheets.</p>
<p>Alex Agieleson, who was near the shrine, said buildings shook with the blast, and that a number of injured people were carried away in ambulances.</p>
<p>Other blasts were reported at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa. St Sebastian’s appealed for help on its Facebook page.</p>
<p>The explosion ripped off the roof and knocked out doors and windows at St Sebastian’s, where people carried the wounded away from blood-stained pews.</p>
<p>Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe convened Sri Lanka’s top military officials at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council following the blasts. Mr Wickremesinghe tweeted that “the government is taking immediate steps to contain the situation.”</p>
<p>The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on Sri Lanka’s government to launch a “very impartial strong inquiry” and to punish those found responsible “mercilessly because only animals can behave like that.”</p>
<p>There was an outpouring of condemnation from around the world following the attacks.</p>
<p>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the blasts “an assault on all of humanity,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced them as “cruel and cynical.”</p>
<p><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/4348778D-F327-47D4-A103-31981820F46F.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-130646" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/4348778D-F327-47D4-A103-31981820F46F.jpeg" alt="" width="1343" height="726" /></a></p>
<p>New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern condemned the “devastating” attacks.</p>
<p>In a statement, Ms Ardern referred to the March 15 shootings in Christchurch.</p>
<p>She said: “New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil. New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely.”</p>
<p>Sri Lankan security forces in 2009 defeated Tamil Tiger rebels who had fought to create an independent homeland for the country’s ethnic minority Tamils.</p>
<figure id="attachment_130645" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130645" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/8C2170C3-09B0-4712-B386-45C66EF85E5D.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-130645" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/8C2170C3-09B0-4712-B386-45C66EF85E5D.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="355" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-130645" class="wp-caption-text">Relatives mourn outside a hospital in Colombo</figcaption></figure>
<p>The UN initially estimated the death toll from 26 years of fighting to be about 100,000 but a UN experts’ panel later said some 45,000 ethnic Tamils may have been killed in the last months of the fighting alone.</p>
<p>Government troops and the Tamil Tigers were both accused of grave human rights violations, which prompted local and international calls for investigations.</p>
<p> ;</p>
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