207 simultaneous deaths against churches and hotels left 207 dead – Telam

At least 207 people have died, including 9 foreigners, and about 450 have been injured today in Sri Lanka after a series of simultaneous attacks in four hotels, a residential complex and three churches where many worshipers have celebrated Easter Sunday.

The record of the worst attack of the decade is 207, said police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara at a press conference during which he fixed the number of injured on 450.

A few minutes later, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ravinatha Aryasinha said that the number of foreigners killed by the attacks could reach 27, although for the moment they could not confirm the ## 147 ## 39, identity of five of them.

The attacks began at 8:45 am local time (2:30 GMT) with a series of six simultaneous explosions in luxury hotels in Colombo and in a church in the capital, another in Katana, in the west of the country, and the third in Batticaloa, east of the island, Gunasekara explained.

The seventh detonation was recorded a few hours later in a small hotel located about 100 meters from the Dehiwala Zoo, a suburb located ten kilometers south of downtown Colombo, while the eighth and last Il 's. is held in a residential complex in the Dermatagodes district, also in the capital, without further details.

Until now, no organization has claimed responsibility for the mbadacre.

After the explosions, the authorities of the country, mostly Buddhist, where only 7% of people profess the Catholic religion, dictated the state of emergency and curfew, allowing the police to immediately stop those who do not comply, out of fear of further attacks, reported the EFE news agency.

"The explosions in Dehiwala and Dematagoda seem to have been caused by people fleeing justice," Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution Harsha de Silva said on the Twitter social network, referring to the perpetrators. attacks today, although it has not worked out.

Some local media reported that WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook services were temporarily blocked, although other sources attribute the difficulty of the operation of telephone and Internet networks to saturation caused by demand.

"Please, stay calm and do not be seduced by the rumors," Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena asked in a message to the nation, in a country accustomed to clashes between civilians in response to violence.