Sri Lanka attack: death toll lowered by 100 to 253

The death toll from the Easter Sunday bombings is revised down from 359 to 253.

A lightning strike in the sky over St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo. Picture: AFP.

The death toll from the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka has been revised down to 250, almost 100 fewer than the toll of 359 announced yesterday.

Sri Lanka’s health ministry said the dramatic lowering of the toll was due to difficulties identifying and counting so many mutilated and dismembered victims.

Suicide bombers blew themselves up in multiple sites on Easter, including three crowded churches and busy hotels popular with foreigners. Officials and eyewitnesses have described scenes of scattered flesh, severed limbs and bodies mutilated beyond recognition. A government investigator said the attackers mixed metal balls with explosives in order to maximise the carnage caused by the blasts.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which local authorities say was executed by a Sri Lankan Islamist group. Police have said they have identified eight out of the nine plotters who blew themselves up, including one woman and an Australian educated man. They have not named the attackers.

Over the last few days, authorities have sought to identify the bodies of the victims and have been handing them over to their families, said the health ministry, which oversees public hospitals. Large funeral services have been held, attended by thousands of people despite the tense security situation in the country as police make dozens of arrests in connection with the plot.

A police spokesman said security officials would work with the health ministry to determine precisely how many men, women and children were killed.

Dow Jones