Sri Lanka

On Easter Sunday (21/4/2019), Sri Lanka witnesses a series of explosions in multiple churches and hotels across the country. The numbers have reached 8 blasts, over 560 injured and at least 160 dead, till the time of writing this article.

The explosion outside of St. Anthony’s church in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo was even caught on a dash-cam footage.

Where did the blasts happen?

Churches:

The explosions occurred today morning which coincides Easter Sunday, hitting 3 churches -so far- that were hosting -at least- hundreds of people celebrating their Easter religious services.

The churches that have been reported as blast sites so far are St. Anthony’s shrine in Kochchikade, St. Sebastian’s church in the nearby city of Negombo, and Zion church in the eastern city of Batticaloa.

Source: CNN

According to CNN, the explosions were so bad that you can see pieces of flesh scattered across the walls and on the sanctuary and even outside one of the churches.

Hotels:

The explosions were not limited to churches. According to several reports and sources, blasts also occurred in several high-end Sri Lankan hotels, especially in the capital city of Colombo.

Random Locations:

Two other bombs went off later in random locations; one in front of the Dehiwala Zoo in Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, 20 minutes outside of the capital, while the other hit a house in Mahawila Gardens, Dematagoda.

The Casualties

The number of the victims is still rising by the minute. However, what we know so far is that those who have lost their lives count up to approximately 163, including at least 20 foreigners.

As for the injuries, and according to hospital records, the number has gone up to 560, ranging from light to life-threatening injuries.

People of Sri Lanka Coming Together

After the explosions the people of Sri Lanka started flooding blood banks to donate blood for the victims, as seen in the photo of Sri Lanka’s National Blood Bank below.

Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan Journalist: Zahrah Imtiaz’s Twitter

State Of Emergency Across the Country

A state of emergency is officially declared across Sri Lanka, with a national curfew imposed and schools across Sri Lanka announcing that they will remain closed for two days. Law enforcement authorities urged people to remain indoors and refrain from visiting public places, especially blast sites.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has condemned these bombing as terrorist attacks.

And according to CNN, he has instructed law enforcement authorities and the army to “take every possible step to maintain law and order, and to conduct investigations into the attacks to bring to justice those responsible.”

He also urged all Sri Lankan citizens to cooperate with the Sri Lankan government to help get this difficult situation under control.

As of right now, these are the latest updates about what is happening in Sri Lanka.

However, since the situation is -sadly- still ongoing, we will be updating this article as needed.

But we sincerely wish this is the last of tragedies the beautiful country of Sri Lanka has to witness.