A series of explosions has rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Here is what we know so far:
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At least 290 people have been killed and 500 more injured in a series of explosions targeting churches holding Easter services and hotels in Sri Lanka.
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Most of the dead are believed to be Sri Lankans, but officials say about 30 people from other countries have been killed. Three UK nationals and two US-UK dual nationals were among the dead. Two Turkish nationals, one Dutch, one Chinese, one Portuguese, and one Japanese have been killed, their respective foreign ministries have confirmed.
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No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but Sri Lanka’s defence minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, said the culprits had been identified and were religious extremists. He said suicide bombers were responsible for the majority of the morning’s bombings and that the wave of attacks was the work of a single group.
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The prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said security services had been “aware of information” of a possible attack up to 10 days ago. “We must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken,” he told reporters on Sunday.
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Twenty-four people have been reported to have been arrested so far.
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The government has imposed a curfew with immediate effect. It also shut down social media and messaging services.
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There were six initial blasts, at three hotels and three churches, before two more explosions some time later, at a guest house and housing scheme, with two people reported to have been killed at the former.
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Harsha de Silva, a government minister, said the last two blasts appeared to have been carried out by the culprits as they fled from police.
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The prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, condemned the “cowardly” attacks and urged people to remain “united and strong”. He convened Sri Lanka’s top military officials at an emergency meeting of the national security council.
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The archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called it “a very sad day” and urged the government to identify the attackers and “punish them mercilessly because only animals can behave like that”.
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World leaders including Narendra Modi, Imran Khan, Theresa May, Donald Tusk, Jean-Claude Juncker and Vladimir Putin condemned the attacks and expressed their sympathies to the victims. May called the violence “truly appalling” and said that “no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear”.