Increase of 310 dead in attacks in Sri Lanka and continued arrests

Sri Lanka paid an emotional tribute on Tuesday to 310 dead and 500 injured suicide bombers on Easter Sunday, Islamist attacks the most deadly in Southeast Asia, following which the government has decreed the state of emergency.

The 21 million inhabitants of the island observed three minutes of silence at 08:30 local time. (0300 GMT), the time of the first bomb explosion, triggered by a suicide bomber in the Catholic Church of San Antonio de Colombo.

The government declared Tuesday a day of national mourning, for whom flags waved at half-mast in public buildings and radio and television broadcast music programs.

In the church of San Antoniodozens of people, candles in their hands, prayed in silence, unable to contain their tears.

After the three minutes of silence,The faithful renewed the prayer aloud.

About 30 kilometers north of the capital, in the town of Negombo, in the church of San Sebastián, victim of another suicide bombing, several of the victims were veiled.

Coffins, which happened in front of the altar of the church, They were surrounded by their parents in tears.

"There are so many bodies that we can not all look at the same time"Anthony Jayakody, Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo who celebrated Mbad, told AFP.

At the same timeor, security forces continued to search for those responsible for the attacks, awarded by the government to the national Islamist group Thowheeth Jama & # 39; ath (NTJ).

No organization has claimed for the moment paternity.

The state of emergency, which allows for quicker and autonomous action by security forces, came into effect Monday at midnight (1830 GMT).

Local police made new arrests. So there are already 40 detainees since Sunday.

The number of victims pbaded in the night rose from 290 to 310 deadafter several wounded who were in serious condition succumbed to their injuries.

Among the victims are 39 foreigners, told AFP a senior police official.

Researchers are investigating whether the NTJ has logistical support from abroad.

The group, little known, was badociated last year with acts of vandalism against Buddhist statues.

"We do not see how a small organization in this country can do all this," Rajitha Senaratne, government spokesman and health minister, said Monday.

"We investigated possible foreign aid and its other links, how they trained the suicide bombers, how they made the bombs", he explained.

A note sent ten days earlier to the Sri Lankan police service warned that the NTJ has prepared attacks against churches and the Embbady of India in Colombo.

Senaratne claimed that this alert had not been sent to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe nor to other members of his government, who could reactivate the political crisis between the president and the prime minister.

The police is under the authority of the president Maithripala Sirisena, who is in open conflict with the prime minister.

Last year, the president sacked the prime minister, that he had to restore to office after seven weeks of political chaos.

In all, the bloody Easter Sunday there were eight attackss, six o'clock in the morning and two o'clock in the afternoon, in several points of Sri Lanka, a country favored by tourists for its beaches and vegetation.

In Colombo, suicide bombings were perpetrated against the Church of San Antonio and three luxury hotels.

They were also attacked two churches in Negombo, north of Colombo and Batticaloain the east of the island.

In the afternoon, two explosions occurred in a hotel Dehiwalain the southern suburbs of Colombo and Orugodawatta, north of the capital.