The death toll in a series of suicide bomb blasts on Easter Sunday targeting hotels and churches in Sri Lanka has risen to 359, police said Wednesday.
The additional deaths were the result of the wounded dying of their injuries. At least 500 people were injured in the attacks.
The blasts have been claimed by the Islamic State group, with Sri Lanka’s government pointing the finger at the little-known local militant group National Thowheeth Jama’ath, but saying the group likely had ‘international’ help.
“Certainly the security apparatus is of the view that there are foreign links and some of the evidence points to that,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told media on Tuesday night.a
“We’ve been following up on this claim, there were suspicions that there were links with the Islamic State,” he added.
Overnight, Sri Lankan police carried out fresh raids, detained 18 more people in their hunt for those involved in the attacks.
Nearly 60 people have been detained since the Sunday blasts, which ripped through high-end hotels and churches packed with Easter worshippers in the capital Colombo and beyond.
It is the worst violence in the country since the end of a Tamil insurgency a decade ago.The toll from a string of deadly suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka has risen to 310, with several people dying of their injuries overnight, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
Around 500 people were wounded in the blasts, Ruwan Gunasekera said in a statement.
He added that 40 people were now under arrest in connection with the attacks, which Sri Lanka´s government has blamed on a previously little-known terrorist group, National Thowheeth Jama´ath.
At least 45 children were among the more than 359 people killed in the suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, the United Nations said Tuesday.
"The total now is 45 children who died," UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac told reporters in Geneva, stressing that others "are wounded and are now fighting for their lives," meaning the toll among minors from the Sunday attacks could rise.
Two Muslim brothers played a key role in the Easter Sunday Sri Lanka blasts that killed more than 359 people, carrying out suicide attacks at different hotels, police sources told Tuesday.
The brothers, sons of a wealthy Colombo spice trader, blew themselves up as guests queued for breakfast at the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels in the capital, the source said.
The sources also revealed that a fourth hotel was targeted in the string of bombings, but the attack failed.
