207 Dead, 450 Injured at Easter Sunday Church Proceedings
Hold your family and friends tight. Another unspeakable act has occurred to hundreds on Easter Sunday and the death toll now is over 200 with almost 500 reported injured from three different churches and various other places in Sri Lanka. Here are the basics according to The New York Times...
- The bombings began around 8:45 a.m., and targeted Roman Catholic houses of worship — St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, the capital; St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo; and Zion Church in Batticaloa — along with three luxury hotels: the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand, and the Kingsbury, all in Colombo.
- Thirteen suspects were held in connection with the bombings, the authorities said. Three officers were killed hunting for the attackers at a housing complex.
- 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. And on Sunday, reflecting frictions within the government, the prime minister pointedly said he had not been informed.
- Sri Lanka temporarily blocked major social media and messaging services, including Facebook and WhatsApp, to curb misinformation.
- At least 35 of the dead were foreigners, several of them American, the authorities said. Others were British, Chinese, Dutch and Portuguese, according to officials and news reports.
Mangala Samaraweera, the Sri Lankan finance minister, called the explosions...
a well-coordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy.
13 different people are currently in custody. Suicide bombers did the most damage and authorities believe at this time that all of the attacks were coordinated.
There was a warning sent to the police in the form of a letter on April 11, 2019, stating that there would possible suicide attacks planned at Catholic churches. You can view the actual letter and what was said in the link below to The New York Times. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the thousands today that are dealing with a loss that we will never understand. May God be with them.