Sri Lanka bombings live: Two Australians confirmed dead as toll rises to 290

As we sign off on our live coverage of the deadly Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, it's just past 6pm in Colombo. Residents there are preparing for a second overnight curfew to begin at 8pm, while Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will declare a nationwide emergency from midnight.

Tuesday has been declared national day of mourning. 

Relatives of a blast victim grieve outside a morgue in Colombo, Sri Lanka.Credit: Eranga Jayawardena

Here is what we now know about Sunday's bombings:

• The official death toll stands at 290, with around 500 people injured
• Two Australians, a mother and her 10-year-old daughter, have been confirmed among the dead, while two other Australian women were seriously injured
• Sri Lanka says 39 foreign tourists were killed in the attacks. Three of those were the children of Denmark's richest man, Anders Holch Povlsen, and his wife Anne. 
• Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the Sri Lankan government is pointing the finger at National Thowheeth Jamaath, a little-known group that security experts said promotes Islamist terrorist ideology. 
• Sri Lankan cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the local group could not have carried out the attacks without assistance from international terror networks.
• Mr Senaratne also said the Sri Lankan officials failed to heed multiple warnings from intelligence agencies from April 4 about the threat of an attack, and that the Prime Minister was not informed of the intelligence until after the bombings. 
• Late on Monday police conducting searches found 87 detonators at a major Colombo bus station. 
• Another search late on Monday uncovered explosive devices inside a van parked outside one of the churches targeted. Efforts to defuse the devices resulted in a fresh explosion that caused momentary panic, but there are no reports of injuries. 

Sri Lankan officials failed to heed warnings from intelligence agencies about the threat of an attack by a domestic radical Muslim group that officials blame for Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 200 people, the country's health minister said Monday.

International intelligence agencies warned of the attacks several times starting April 4, Mr Senaratne said. On April 9, the defence ministry wrote to the police chief with intelligence that included the group's name, he said. And on April 11, he said police wrote to the heads of security of the judiciary and diplomatic security division.

It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken in response. Authorities said little was known about the group except that its name had appeared in intelligence reports.

Because of political dysfunction within the government, Seranatne said, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet were kept in the dark about the intelligence until after the attacks.

President Maithrela Sirisena, who was out of the country at the time of the attacks, ousted Wickremesinghe in late October and dissolved the Cabinet. The Supreme Court eventually reversed his actions, but the prime minister has not been allowed into meetings of the Security Council since October. 

Reuters

An explosion has gone off in a van near a church in Colombo as bomb squad officials worked to defuse a device, witnesses have said. It's unclear whether or not the explosion was controlled or whether anyone was injured. 

"The van exploded when the bomb defusing unit of the STF (Special Task Force) and air force tried to diffuse the bomb," one witness told Reuters.

Seven News' Hugh Whitfield was at the scene when the bomb went off, describing it as "absolute chaos.

"No one expected it," he tweeted.

Security force spokesman were not immediately available for comment.

Sri Lankan police have found 87 bomb detonators at the main bus station in the capital, Colombo, on Monday, a spokesman said.

Security forces are continuing to carry out searches across the island to find those behind the bombing of churches and hotels that killed 290 people and wounded about 500 on Easter Sunday. 

Reuters

Denmark's richest man Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife Anne lost three of their four children in the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, a spokesman for Povlsen's fashion firm said on Monday.

The spokesman declined to give any further details but Danish media said the family had been on holiday in Sri Lanka.

Fashion magnate Anders Holch Povlsen. Credit: https://tech.eu

Povlsen is the owner of fashion firm Bestseller, which includes brands like Vero Moda and Jack & Jones, and he is the majority stakeholder in online retailer Asos while also holding a big stake in Zalando.

He is also Scotland's biggest private landowner, in possession of more than 1 percent of all the land in Scotland, according to Forbes. 

Reuters

The Sri Lankan government has blamed local militant group National Thowheeth Jamaath for the attacks on Sunday, but says it acted with outside help. 

In a press conference on Monday, cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne pointed the finger at National Thowheeth Jamaath but said "we do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country.

"There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded," he said. 

The two Australians killed in the Sri Lankan bomb blasts have been identified as mother Manik Suriaaratchi and her 10-year-old daughter Alexendria.

Manik Suriaaratchi and her 10-year-old daughter Alexendria.Credit: Facebook

Prime Minister Scott Morrison had earlier confirmed that two citizens living in Sri Lanka were among the 290 dead. Friend Lucien Pereira confirmed their deaths when contacted by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday. 

Mr Pereira said Ms Suriaaratchi and her husband moved to Sri Lanka with their daughter in 2014. "They are so beautiful, so helpful to everyone. They’re just not like normal people, they are so good. I don’t want to believe that we’ve lost them," Mr Pereira said.

Ms Suriaaratchi's husband, Sudesh, is believed to be safe.

Full story here. 

Sri Lankan authorities have ordered a curfew in the capital, Colombo, for a second night following Sunday's attacks. The government information department said the curfew is to be observed from 8pm on Monday to 4am on Tuesday (local time). 

Reuters

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says a number of Victorian landmarks will be lit up tonight and tomorrow night in solidarity with the victims of the attacks in Sri Lanka. 

Tourists are scrambling to leave Sri Lanka and hotels are bracing for cancellations after Sunday's deadly terrorist attack that killed 290 people, targeting foreigners and churchgoers.

Holidaymakers are flocking to the main airport, cutting short their vacations in the wake of coordinated blasts at churches and luxury hotels, the worst violence since the end of a civil war a decade ago.

Sri Lankan police inspect the scene at the Shangri-la hotel in Colombo.Credit: AP

Kishu Gomes, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, said he couldn't give an exact count of the number of people leaving, but it could run into the thousands. Tour operators in India, the biggest source market for visitors to Sri Lanka, are also canceling trips for clients. That would hurt an industry that contributes almost 5 per cent to the economy.

The foreigner death toll rose to 39 on Monday, including nationals from India, Portugal, Turkey, the UK, and the US. Top tourist spots, like the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, remained closed, while several of the bigger hotels in Colombo, such as the Taj Samudra and Ramada, erected barricades and were checking vehicles entering the premises. 

"Even during 26 years of war, we did not experience a calamity like this," said Hiran Cooray, chairman of Jetwing Symphony Ltd, the investment arm of Sri Lankan hotelier Jetwing.

While there have been some cancellations so far, Cooray said "the tourism industry will come out of this."

Bloomberg