As what has been reported as coordinated terrorist attacks carried out on both sides of Sri Lanka by a single group, suicide bombers struck three popular hotels, as well as three churches on Easter Sunday. CNN updated its report on Monday morning stating that 290 people were killed and about 500 others injured.
The hotels in question were located within a mile radius of each other in Colombo, including the 500-room Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo, the 229-room Kingsbury Colombo and the 501-room Cinnamon Grand Colombo, which had been blown up in 1984 when it was the Hotel Lanka Oberoi. It was not immediately clear how many of the deaths and injuries occurred at the hotels.
A statement from Shangri-La said that at approximately 9:05 a.m. local time (around the same time of all the other blasts), an explosion took place in the hotel’s Table One Restaurant. “We are working closely with local authorities and emergency services to provide our fullest assistance and support to the affected staff and guests… Our immediate priority is to look after the safety and wellbeing of all involved,” the statement read. “A Shangri-La crisis management team has been activated to provide all necessary support. As this is an active investigation, we are unable to comment further at this stage. We will provide an update once more information is available.”
A report from Singapore-based news agency CNA quoted a Cinnamon Grand hotel manager as saying the suicide bomber at the hotel waited patiently in a queue for the Easter Sunday breakfast buffet before setting off explosives strapped to his back. The unidentified manager added that carrying a plate, the man, who had registered at the hotel the night before, was just about to be served when he set off his bomb.
Twenty-four people were taken into custody in connection with the bombings, authorities said. Three officers were killed hunting for the attackers at a housing complex.
A New York Times report said a top police official alerted security officials in an advisory 10 days ago about a threat to churches from a radical Islamist group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath. But it was unclear what safeguards, if any, were taken, or if in the end the group played any role in the violence.