Sri Lanka attacks: Two Australians killed in blasts

Two Australian citizens have been killed and two others injured in the bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, with the death toll rising to almost 300.

Images from the scene of a one of the bomb blasts inside a church in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Picture: Twitter

Two Australian citizens have been killed and two others injured in the bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed.

Both of the individuals killed were living in Sri Lanka and one was a dual national.

Mr Morrison said because they were residing in Sri Lanka they might not have been registered as Australian citizens in initial counts.

He said he was unable to provide further details about the two citizens citing privacy reasons.

The Prime Minister said the death toll had risen to 290.

Scott Morrison said it “is just a terribly said day” as he confirmed the deaths of two Australians killed in the Sri Lankan bomb blasts. Picture: News Corp

“As I said last night, as the days pass, and the injured are treated, and some of them succumb to their wounds as well, we are seeing this massacre going from what was bad, very bad, to much, much worse,’’ Mr Morrison said.

“And so it is just a terribly said day. Sri Lanka will be just devastateed by this. As, I think all peace-loving peoples of the world are.’’

The Prime Minister revealed the injured people consisted of a woman in her mid-50s and a woman in her mid to late 20s.

Both were in a stable condition. One had been treated for shrapnel wounds while the other had been treated for a broken leg.

Scene of ‘absolute carnage’

An Australian man has described scenes of horror when two suicide bombers detonated their backpacks as tourists ate breakfast at the Shangri-La hotel yesterday.

The man, identified only as Sam, told 3AW the hotel was a scene of “absolute carnage.”

Sam said he and a travel partner were also having breakfast at the Shangri-La when two blasts went off. He said he had seen two men wearing backpacks seconds before the blasts.

“There were people screaming and dead bodies all around,” he said. “Kids crying, kids on the ground, I don’t know if they were dead or not, just crazy.”

Sri Lankan police at the site of the explosion at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo . Picture: AFP.

Another Australian, identified as Julie, told the radio station she had missed the Colombo bomb blasts by chance.

“We’re visiting local family over here who through the local grapevine called us and told us not to go into Colombo yesterday morning,” she said.

As the death toll rose to 290, the Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs said travel advice for Sri Lanka had been upgrated.

Scott Morrison said:

“That has been assessed overnight and DFAT has updated their travel advice. That is now to reconsider your need to travel and avoid all affected areas.”

It came as Sri Lankan authorities confirmed police were warned of a potential terror attack by radical Muslims 10 days ago but did not act on the intelligence.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters this morning that “information was there” about possible attacks and that an investigation would look into “why adequate precautions were not taken”.

Mr Wickremesinghe said he had not been told about a warning to Sri Lanka police that suicide bombers planned to hit “prominent churches”.

The intelligence alert was sent 10 days ago to top officers from Police Chief Pujuth Jayasundara. “A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo,” the alert said.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that was linked last year to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues.

Sri Lankan Minister of Telecommunication Harin Fernando tweeted a picture of the memo on Sunday.

Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. What my father heard was also from an intelligence officer. Serious action need to be taken as to why this warning was ignored. I was in Badulla last night pic.twitter.com/ssJyItJF1x

— Harin Fernando (@fernandoharin) April 21, 2019

DFAT confirmed this morning that one Australian has been injured in the bomb blasts.

DFAT said in a statement: Following multiple bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, the Australian High Commission in Colombo continues to make urgent enquiries with local authorities to determine the welfare of any Australians affected.

At this stage, DFAT has not received any reports of Australian fatalities. DFAT has offered consular assistance to one Australian injured in the attacks. Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further comment.”

Earlier, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham told the ABC: “We are not aware of any Australians loss of life.”

Earlier, Colombo International Airport went into lockdown after a pipe bomb was reportedly detonated in a controlled explosion early today..

According to Sirasa News1st., the bomb was found on a road near the airport and destroyed.

Gihan Seneviratne, a spokesman from Sri Lanka’s Air Force, told the Sri Lankan Sunday Times: “A PVC pipe which was six feet in length containing explosives in it was discovered.”

Sky News journalist Neville Lazarus posted on Twitter : “Colombo International Airport in lock down. Security drill on a suspect package. Just heard a blast in the distance. Hope what ever it was was diffused / destroyed.”

Colombo International Airport in lock down. Security drill on a suspect package. Just heard a blast in the distance. Hope what ever it was was diffused / destroyed pic.twitter.com/WMglhOQqZI

— neville lazarus (@nevilleskynews) April 21, 2019

The pipe bomb was found after terror returned to Sri Lanka yesterday as co-ordinated suicide blasts ripped through three churches and three high-end hotels in the nation’s capital and provincial ­cities, killing at least 207 people — including 35 foreigners — as they celebrated Easter Sunday.

After a decade of hard-won peace, near-simultaneous bombings struck Colombo’s historic St Anthony’s Church, St Sebastian’s Church in the neighbouring coastal resort town of Negombo and an evangelical church in eastern Batticaloa as parishioners were gathering for mass before 9am local time yesterday.

Relatives of a blast victim grieve outside a morgue in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Picture: AP

Around the same time in colonial central Colombo, the city’s Cinnamon Grand Hotel — near the Prime Minister’s residence — the Shangri-La and the Kingsbury hotels were also attacked.

Hours after the initial six bombings, two suspects being pursued by police set off devices, killing themselves. Officials this morning said 13 men have been arrested at two locations in and around Colombo.

A Sri Lankan Police officer inspects a blast spot at the Shangri-la. Picture: AP

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the strikes on a country that suffered almost three decades of terror in a civil war with Tamil Tiger separatists. The war ended in 2009.

There have also been attacks on churches from hardline Buddhist groups.

Among the dead were dozens of children attending Sunday-school classes. Americans, British and Dutch citizens were also believed killed in the blasts.

An elderly woman is helped near St. Anthony's Shrine after one of several simultaneous explosions.

In St Sebastian’s Catholic Church alone, at least 62 people were killed in a blast that ripped through pews and destroyed the roof of the historic building.

More than 450 people were injured in the attacks that sparked long queues outside Colombo’s National Blood Bank centre yesterday by locals wanting to give blood for the wounded.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena urged people to remain calm, while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe strongly condemned the “cowardly attacks”.

Sri Lankan police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying the injured. Picture: AP

A nationwide curfew was imposed, social media and messaging services shut down, and police and military blocked streets and guarded churches, ­temples and mosques.

Scott Morrison condemned the “horrific terrorist attack” but could not confirm whether any Australians had been caught up in the blasts because information at hand was “too inconclusive”.

“At this time, as Easter Sunday draws to a conclusion here in Australia, our heart goes out to those Christians and all the other innocents who have been slaughtered today in this horrific terrorist ­attack,’’ the Prime Minister said.

Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) personnel gesture outside a house after a suicide blast had killed police searching the property. Picture: AFP

Bill Shorten and Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong condemned the “despicable targeted attacks”, which they described as an “assault on our common humanity”.

A manager at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel told last night how a suicide bomber had waited pat­iently in a queue for the Easter Sunday breakfast buffet before setting off explosives strapped to his back. Carrying a plate, the man was just about to be served when he set off his bomb in the packed restaurant. “There was utter chaos,” said the manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast.”

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said the high commission in Colombo was “making urgent inquiries with local authorities to determine the welfare of any Australians affected” by the attacks.

The Catholic bishop of Batti­caloa, Joseph Ponniah, heard the blast at the Zion evangelical church, 100m away from his rooms. At least 30 people were killed there. Most were children under 12.

“There are a lot of Christians in Batticaloa ... but we all live in peace here; Muslims, Catholics, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus,” he told The Australian. “We are all living together.”

An inside view of the St Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit. Picture: Getty