The death toll has hit 290 including at least eight Britons, after a wave of coordinated terrorist attacks targeted Churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday morning.
It has ben revealed that two ministers suggested intelligence officers had some sort of prior intelligence of the attacks.
https://twitter.com/ManoGanesan/status/1119876027008868353
Harin Fernando, Sri Lanka’s minister for telecommunications said on Twitter, “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.”
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
Sri Lankan police have arrested 13 people so far, but no one has claimed responsibility, the government are treating this as a terrorist attack by religious extremists.
Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary said there was “lots of speculation at the moment but there is no hard knowledge” about the perpetrators of the atrocity.
He added, “We obviously need to wait for the police in Sri Lanka to do their work.
“If there is any help that the UK can give, we would want to give it.”
NHS doctor Julian Emmanuel, from Surrey who was at the Cinnamon Grand hotel told The Sun: “I’ve never seen such utter devastation.”
He added, “My children and wife are traumatised by what they saw today.
“We will never forget this.
“We will always remember Easter Sunday for this reason now.”
Kieran Arasaratnam, a professor at Imperial College London Business School, was staying at the Shangri-La hotel.
He told the BBC, “Everyone just started to panic, it was total chaos.
“I looked to the room on the right and there’s blood everywhere.
“Everyone was running, and a lot of people just don’t know what was going on. People had blood on their shirt and there was someone carrying a girl to the ambulance.
The walls and the floor were covered in blood.”
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury said, “On this holy day, let us stand with the people of Sri Lanka in prayer, condolence and solidarity as we reject all violence, all hatred and all division.”
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