Easter Sunday bomb attacks kill more than 200 at Sri Lankan churches, hotels

Thirteenpeople were arrested and three officers were killed on Sunday as police sought those behind a rash of bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 200 people, police and local media said.

"Altogether we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information, as of now we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals," police spokespersonRuwan Gunasekera told reporters in Colombo.

Those killed included 32foreigners, following the near simultaneous and co-ordinated explosions that struck three churches and three luxury hotels, in one of the deadliest blasts in the country's history, government officials said.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeosaid "several"Americans were among the dead.Global Affairs Canada said in a statementthat it has "no reports of any Canadian citizens being affected" by the attacks.

Among the fatalities were three people from Denmark, two from Turkey, and one from Portugal, Sri Lankan officials said. There were also Chinese and Dutch among the dead, according to media reports. Five British people, two of whom had dual U.S. citizenship, and three Indians were killed, according to officials in those countries.

The eight explosions, some of which officials said were suicidebomb attacks, led to an immediate clampdown, with the government declaring a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time and blocking access to major social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp.

SriLankan Airlines is telling passengers booked on flights out of the country that they will be able to fly despite the curfew.

Watch: Sri Lanka reels from a series of co-ordinated bomb attacks

Carnage in Sri Lanka

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Sri Lanka reels from a series of co-ordinated bomb attacks on several churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday.

Three of the blasts targeted St. Anthony's Church in Colombo, St. Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another, the Zion church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. local timeas the Easter Sunday mass wasin progress, a police spokespersonsaid.

Three other explosions were reported from the five-star hotels the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

Hours later, two more blasts occurred as police moved to Dematagodaon the outskirts of Colomboand occupants of a house apparently set offexplosives to prevent being arrested. A police spokespersonsaidthree police officers were killed when they went to question suspects following a tip.

Military spokespersonBrig. Atapattu said one of the two blasts occurred at a guesthouse in Dehiwala, south of the capital, killing at least two people.

No claim of responsibility

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for theattacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009, a time when bomb blasts in the capitalwere common.

Local Christian groups have said they faced increasingintimidation from some extremist Buddhist monks in recent years.Last year, there were clashes between the majority SinhaleseBuddhist community and minority Muslims, with some hardlineBuddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert toIslam.

Out of Sri Lanka's total population of around 22 million, 70per cent are Buddhist, 12.6 per cent Hindu, 9.7 per cent Muslim and7.6 per cent Christian, according to the country's 2012 census.

In a sign that the attacks on three churches and fourhotels could lead to communal violence, police reported on Sunday night that there had been a petrol bomb attack on amosque in the northwestern district of Puttalum and arsonattacks on two shops owned by Muslims in the western district ofKalutara.

Government had 'prior information'

The government has acknowledged that it had "priorinformation" of attacks on churches involving a little knownlocal Islamist group but didn't do enough about it.

Most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years. The Tamil movementcollapsed in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Ruwan Wijewardena,Sri Lanka's defence minister,described what happened as an "unfortunate terrorist incident" and suggested the explosions were the work of religious extremists.

Sri Lanka blast caught on tape

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New video shows one of the explosions that rocked a church in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo on Easter Sunday.

The Archbishop of Colombocalledfor those responsible for the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka to be punished "mercilessly."

Cardinal Malcolm RanjithurgedSri Lanka's government to launch a "very impartial strong inquiry" andpunish those found responsible "mercilessly because only animals can behave like that."

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was meeting top military officials and tweeted earlier Sunday that "the government is taking immediate steps to contain the situation."

He described the attacks as "cowardly" and called on the country to remain "united and strong."

Wickremsinghe acknowledged that thegovernment had some "prior information of the attack," thoughministers were not told.

He said there wasn't an adequate response and there neededto be an inquiry into how the information was used. He also said the government needs to look at theinternational links of a local militant group.

"Absolutely horrific news from Sri Lanka," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. "Canada strongly condemns the heinous attacks on Christians at churches and hotels. Our hearts & thoughts are with the families & loved ones of those killed and all those injured."

The Canadian government updated its travel advisory for Sri Lanka to urge its citizens in the country to "exercise a high degree of caution."

Pope Francis denouncedthe "cruel violence" of the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka andcalled for prayers for all those who are suffering from the bloodshed.

Francis added an appeal at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing to address the massacre.

Speaking from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, Francis said: "I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence."

He added: "I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this."