nearly 190 dead in multiple attacks in churches and hotels «Diario La Capitale de Mar del Plata

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – At least 187 people have died, including nine foreigners, and 469 were wounded on Sunday after simultaneous explosions in four hotels, a residential complex and three churches where many worshipers celebrated Easter Sunday.

The balance is now 187, said police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara, while several hospital sources carried the total number of injured to 469.

After the eight explosions, the government declared the state of emergency and the police imposed a curfew with immediate effect, fearing further attacks, according to the EFE news agency.

The first six explosions took place in a coordinated way at 8:45 am local time (00:15 am in Argentina) in at least three luxury hotels in Colombo and also in a church in the capital, another in Katana, in the west of the country , and the third. in Batticaloa, to the east of the island, Gunasekara explained.

The seventh detonation, in which there were two deaths, was recorded hours later at a small hotel about 100 meters from the Dehiwala Zoo, a suburb ten kilometers south of downtown Colombo. and finally, so far, they took place in a real estate complex located in the Dermatagoda region, also in the capital, without further details.

Images broadcast by local media and social networks show the magnitude of the explosion in at least one of the churches. The roof of the temple is half-destroyed, the rubble and bodies scattered as people try to help them.

For the time being, no single weapon or group of firearms has claimed responsibility for these coordinated attacks, while the authorities are keen to monitor the dissemination of false information that could lead to confusion or retaliation. against an ethnic or religious group.

According to some media, WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook have been temporarily blocked, while other sources indicate that mobile and internet networks are saturated and barely working.

"Please, stay calm and do not be seduced by the rumors," Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said in a message to the nation, in a country where clashes within the community have have been frequent in response to violent events.

Attacks on religious minorities on the island have been repeated in the past, the latest having occurred in 2018, when the government had to declare the state of emergency after clashes between Muslims and Buddhists Sinhala, causing two deaths and dozens of detainees. .

In Sri Lanka, the Christian population accounts for 7.4%, Buddhists 70.2%, Hindus 12.6% and Muslims 9.7%, according to the 2011 census.

However, no attack of this magnitude has occurred in Sri Lanka since the civil war between Tamil guerrillas and the government, a conflict that lasted 26 years and ended in 2009 and left, according to the UN, more than 40,000 civilians