Mother and daughter killed in Sri Lanka bombings
Devastated Sudesh Kolonne has described the moment he dropped off his Australian wife and 10-year-old daughter at church while he went looking for a parking space, only to hear a deafening explosion.
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A Perth-based British doctor and her retired firefighter husband who were killed in the Easter Sunday terror attacks in Sri Lanka have been remembered as soulmates dedicated to public service.
Sally Bradley and Bill Harrop were staying in the Cinnamon Grand Hotel when one of the seven suicide bombers struck.
The couple had been living in Western Australia since 2013 but had bought a retirement home in the Cotswolds, nephew Jonathan Bradley said.
Mr Harrop retired from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in 2012 after 30 years as a firefighter and was decorated for his role in the aftermath of the 1996 IRA attack on Manchester.
In Perth, Dr Bradley was the director of clinical services at Rockingham Peel Group, and had held similar roles at Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals. Rockingham Peel Hospital Group executive director Kathleen Smith described Dr Bradley as compassionate,respected and patient-focused.
“She absolutely loved living in Australia. She felt very at home here,” Ms Smith told 6PR radio.
“They were soulmates, they just lived for each other.
“He had two boys, which Sally took on as her step-sons. She talked about them as if they were her own.” One son, Gavin, was staying at a different hotel in Sri Lanka at the time of the blast.
Ms Smith said Dr Bradley told her they were staying at a “posh” hotel for a few days, then would move to other parts of SriLanka.
She said the sociable and adventurous couple did not usually stay at five star hotels.
“She would normally get out amongst the community that she was visiting,” Ms Smith said.
In a statement, Dr Bradley’s family described her as “the personification of joy that life could bring if you approached itwith a smile on your face and warmth in your heart”.
“Their aim was always to experience life to the fullest,” the family said.
“Kindred spirits, they travelled the world together,safe in each other’s arms and with smiles across their faces.
“They were the heartbeat of their families and the inspiration in their lives. They will be forever sorely missed, but neverforgotten.” Dr Bradley was sister to Labour peer Lord Keith Bradley, former MP for Manchester Withington, who said the familywould never get over the tragedy.
“I have been inundated with beautiful tributes to a remarkable and wondrous woman. She wastruly a bright light in many people’s lives,” he said. “The light may have been cruelly distinguished for no reason or justification,but she will always live in our hearts and the memories she provided will be forever cherished.”
‘I tried to lift my daughter, but she was already dead’
An Australian woman and her nine-year-old daughter, murdered as they celebrated Easter Sunday mass, are among the 290 dead in Sri Lanka’s horrific church and hotel bombings.
Manik and Alexandria Suriaaratchi, of Melbourne, were among more than 100 worshippers killed when a suicide bomber blew up St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo.
The blast was so powerful it destroyed much of the building’s roof, leaving shattered tiles among the casualties slumped across the floor.
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Bleeding parishioners scrambled to carry severely injured people from the church, which was littered with overturned chairs, shattered glass and debris that had fallen from the ceiling.
Manik Suriaaratchi’s husband, Sudesh Kolonne, has described the distressing moment he found his wife and daughter dead inside the church, following the deadly blast.
Mr Kolonne only managed to escape the St Sebastian bombing after he dropped his wife and daughter at the church and went to find parking.
“I heard a huge noise and I jumped into the church and I saw that my daughter and my wife is on the floor I don’t know what to do,” Mr Kolonne told the ABC from Colombo.
“I just saw my daughter on the floor and I tried to lift her up, (but] she was already dead. And exactly the same … next my wife is there.”
Mr Kolonne remembered his daughter Alexandria as a “very good kid” and “lovely daughter” who loved music and loved to dance.
“We used to go to that church every Sunday,” Mr Kolonne said.
'I don't know what to do.'
— Hashela Kumarawansa (@Hashela_) April 22, 2019
The father and husband of the Australians killed in the #SriLanka terror attacks speaks to @abcnews about his loss. This is heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/uHHV2c0Mhg
Ms Suriaaratchi was of Sri Lankan heritage and was a regular visitor to the country.
She was the founder and managing director of Omega Global, a business management company with offices in Melbourne and Colombo that helped international brands in new markets.
Tributes began pouring in from Australia for the mother and daughter as friends learned of the tragedy.
“RIP Akki Manik Suriaaratchi and angel Alexandria. You will never be forgotten and will be always in our hearts,” Lucien Pereira posted on Facebook.
Suranga Tennakoon also posted: “We lost another most valuable asset to Hospitality Industry, she is Manik Suriaaratchi. My deepest sympathies! So sorry to hear of your loss.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was grieving.
“Right now, Sri Lanka is grieving. Australia is grieving,” he said. “Two Australians have lost their lives in this terrible massacre. My heart is full of grief for them and their families. I’m sure all Australians are.”
He said two Australian women were among the 500 injured in the co-ordinated attacks and were in a stable condition. “One was treated for shrapnel wounds and the other was treated for a broken leg.”
He could not rule out more Australians being injured or killed.
“As the days pass and the injured are treated and some of them succumb to their wounds as well, we are seeing this massacre go from what was bad, very bad, to much worse.”
Sydney restaurant owner Manjula Fernando, who knew Ms Suriaaratchi, said he was reeling at the news.
“My hometown is about 10km away from Negombo church where one of the blasts happened and my niece had been to a midnight mass … she avoided being hurt in any attack,” Mr Fernando said.
Another friend of Mr Fernando’s, who works at the Grand Cinnamon Hotel, where a suicide bomber queued up for the breakfast buffet before the attack, has been left feeling “terrible” after six co-workers lost their lives.
“He only managed to survive because the attack happened in the morning and he dropped his daughter off at school before his evening shift,” Mr Fernando said.
“If it’s a war people understand when people die, but this is in a mass. A holy place or people having breakfast and celebrating with family.”
Other foreigners killed came from the UK, US, Turkey, China, Portugal and the Netherlands.
British father Ben Nicholson had a heartbreaking search through the wreckage of the Shangri-La Hotel and Colombo’s hospitals after a terrorist detonated his suicide bomb as the family queued for breakfast.
Anita Nicholson, 42, and her son Alex, 11, were confirmed dead while Mr Nicholson frantically looked for his youngest child, daughter Annabel, whose condition is unknown.
Mr Nicholson, a Singapore-based lawyer who was on holiday with his family, escaped with minor injuries.
Sitting in the five-star Shangri-La’s restaurant at the same time was University of London student Nisanga Mayadume and her TV chef mum Shantha Mayadume. A beaming Nisanga had posted a selfie of them having breakfast to Facebook captioned “Easter breakfast with family”, moments before the explosion killed the mother and daughter.
In the Cinnamon Grand hotel, the suicide bomber has been named as a Sri Lankan local who registered in the hotel as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed the night before.
One of the hotel managers welcoming guests to breakfast was among those killed.
A family staying at the Cinnamon Grand has described witnessing the horror of the attack.
Julian Emmanuel, 48, a doctor from Surrey, his wife Maria, 39, and their young children Jasintha and Neethan were sleeping when they heard the explosion.
They were rushed outside by staff, where Mr Emmanuel said they saw “someone who had an almost severed arm”.
“My children and wife are traumatised by what they saw. We’ll never forget this.”
Lal Raj Wickrematunga, Consular-General for Sri Lanka in Sydney, said the community in Australia have been left “deeply shocked” following the terror attack.
“This deserves to be condemned because it is the most heinous crime, as people were in an Easter mass and offering up their prayers while they got killed,” Mr Wickrematunga said.
“There have been arrests made and in the next couple of days we will know more about what motivated this crime.”
Imtiaz Issadeen from Ozlanka, a Sri Lankan community page in Australia, believes the suicide bombers should be refused any proper burials for their crime.
“All religious leaders have an obligation to curtail terrorism. What better way than to not provide them with a path to their dream of eternal paradise and have them cremated instead,” Mr Issadeen said.
FURY AT MISSED TERROR WARNING
Members of a little-known extremist Muslim group called NTJ with no presence on the world stage are among two dozen people arrested over the Sri Lankan terror attacks.
Sri Lankans unleashed their fury on politicians on Monday after learning there was no public warning despite the police chief issuing a nationwide alert on April 11 of foreign intelligence reports that the NTJ, National Thowheeth Jama’ath, was planning suicide attacks on “prominent” churches.
Twenty-four radicals, two believed to be women, have been arrested after the eight bombs tore through three churches, four top hotels and a NTJ “safe house”.
A ninth bomb — discovered inside a large PVC pipe packed with explosives — was found on the way to Bandaranaike International Airport and defused by police.
RADICALS WERE ‘LOCAL’ SAYS PM
With 32 Sri Lankans confirmed to have been fighting in Syria with Islamic State, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said “so far the names that have come up are local”, but investigators would look at whether the attackers had any “overseas links”.
He also acknowledged that “information was there” about possible attacks and an inquiry was needed into why there was not an adequate response.
“While this goes on we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken,” he said.
The existence of the terror alert was revealed by Sri Lanka’s telecommunications minister Harin Fernando via Twitter before the government imposed a blackout on all social media.
“We would like to draw your special attention to the page no 2 to 4 of the statement of the State Intelligence service stating that information has been received regarding an alleged plan of suicidal attack by the leader of ‘Nations Thawahid Jaman’ Mohomad Saharan,” said the alert, which was sent by police chief Pujuth Jayasundara to senior officials.
“According to information of that statement (we) would like you to give special attention and inform your staff to provide special security measures to the areas covered by your division.”
Mr Fernando, 41, sparked more vitriol when he revealed that even his dad had heard of the alert “from an intelligence officer” and said he had been out of Colombo in his home town of Badulla at the time of the Easter attacks.
“What my father heard was also from an intelligence officer. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored,” Mr Fernando said.
— Janet Fife-Yeomans & Adella Beaini
Originally published as Mother and daughter killed in Sri Lanka bombings
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