Sri Lanka imposes emergency

Sri Lanka said on Monday it was invoking emergency powers in the aftermath of devastating bomb attacks on hotels and churches, in which 290 people were killed and nearly 500 wounded.

The attacks have been blamed on militants with foreign links and the emergency law, which gives police and the military extensive powers to detain and interrogate suspects without court orders, went into effect at midnight on Monday, the president’s office said.

The capital Colombo was jittery on Monday.

Police said 87 bomb detonators were found at the city’s main bus station, while an explosive went off near a church where scores were killed on Sunday when bomb squad officials were trying to defuse it.

A night curfew goes into effect at 8pm, the government announced.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but suspicion was focusing on Islamist militants in the Buddhist-majority country.

Investigators said seven suicide bombers took part in the attacks while a government spokesperson said an international network was involved.

Police had received a tip-off of a possible attack on churches by a little-known domestic Islamist group about 10 days ago, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The intelligence report, dated April 11, said a foreign intelligence agency had warned authorities of possible attacks on churches by the leader of the group, the National Thawheed Jama’ut.

It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken on the tip-off.

Police said 24 people had been arrested, all of whom were Sri Lankan, but they gave no more details.

International anti-terrorism experts said even if a local group had carried out the attacks, it was likely al-Qaeda or the Islamic State were involved, given the level of sophistication.

Two of the suicide bombers blew themselves up at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel on Colombo’s seafront, a senior official at the government’s forensic division, Ariyananda Welianga, said.

The others targeted three churches and two other hotels.

A fourth hotel and a house in a suburb of the capital Colombo were also hit, but it was not immediately clear how those attacks were carried out.

Most of the attacks came during Easter services and when hotel guests were sitting down for breakfast buffets.

“Guests who had come for breakfast were lying on the floor, blood all over,” a Kingsbury Hotel employee said.

Cabinet spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne said an international network was involved but did not elaborate, while the president, Maithripala Sirisena, said the government would seek foreign assistance to track the overseas links.

Most of the dead and wounded were Sri Lankans, though government officials said 32 foreigners were killed.