Police in Sri Lanka said Monday the investigation into the Easter Sunday bombings will examine reports that the intelligence community failed to detect or warn of possible suicide attacks before the violence.

The nine bombings of churches, luxury hotels and other sites was Sri Lanka's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said Monday the death toll had risen overnight to 290 dead with more than 500 wounded.

Two government ministers have alluded to intelligence failures. Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando tweeted: 'Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored.'

Fernando's tweet was accompanied by documents dated on April 11 with the words: 'INFORMATION OF AN ALLEGED PLAN ATTACK.'

He said his father had heard of the possibility of an attack as well and had warned him not to enter popular churches.

And Mano Ganeshan, the minister for national integration, said the security officers within his ministry had been warned by their division about the possibility two suicide bombers would target politicians.

Gunasekara said the Criminal Investigation Department investigating the blasts will look into the reports.

Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena previously described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said 13 suspects were arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Wijewardena said most of the bombings were believed to have been suicide attacks.

The explosions - mostly in or around Colombo, the capital - collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in one scene after another of smoke, soot, blood, broken glass, screams and wailing alarms.

Victims were carried out of blood-spattered pews.

'People were being dragged out,' said Bhanuka Harischandra, of Colombo, a 24-year-old founder of a tech marketing company who was going to the Shangri-La Hotel for a meeting when it was bombed.

'People didn't know what was going on. It was panic mode. There was blood everywhere.'

Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three bombed hotels and one of the churches, St Anthony's Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from a variety of countries were recovered.

The US said 'several' Americans were among the dead, while Britain, India, China, Japan and Portugal said they, too, lost citizens.

The streets were largely deserted Monday morning, with most shops closed and a heavy deployment of soldiers and police.

Stunned clergy and onlookers gathered at St Anthony's Shrine, looking past the soldiers to the stricken church.

The Sri Lankan government lifted a curfew that had been imposed during the night.

But most social media remained blocked Monday after officials said they needed to curtail the spread of false information and ease tension in the country of about 21 million people.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could trigger instability in Sri Lanka, and he vowed to 'vest all necessary powers with the defense forces' to take action against those responsible.

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on Sri Lanka's government to 'mercilessly' punish those responsible 'because only animals can behave like that'.

The scale of the bloodshed recalled the worst days of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from the Buddhist-majority country. The Tamils are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, is about 70 per cent Buddhist. Scattered incidents of anti-Christian harassment have occurred in recent years, but nothing on the scale of what happened Sunday.

There is also no history of violent Muslim militants in Sri Lanka. However, tensions have been running high more recently between hard-line Buddhist monks and Muslims.

Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka condemned the church attacks, as did countries around the world, and Pope Francis expressed condolences at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing in Rome.

'I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence,' Francis said.

Six nearly simultaneous blasts took place in the morning at the shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo, as well as at two churches outside Colombo, according to a Sri Lankan military spokesman, Brig Sumith Atapattu.

A few hours later, two more blasts occurred just outside Colombo, one of them at a guesthouse, where two people were killed, the other near an overpass, Atapattu said.

Also, three police officers were killed during a search at a suspected safe house on the outskirts of Colombo when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, authorities said.

The Shangri-La's second-floor restaurant was gutted, with the ceiling and windows blown out.

Loose wires hung down and tables were overturned in the blackened space. From outside the police cordon, three bodies could be seen covered in white sheets.

Sri Lankan forces defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, ending a civil war that took over 100,000 lives, with both sides accused of grave human rights violations.

Harischandra, who witnessed the attack at the Shangri-La Hotel, said there was 'a lot of tension' after the bombings, but added: 'We've been through these kinds of situations before.'

He said Sri Lankans are 'an amazing bunch' and noted that his social media feed was flooded with photos of people standing in long lines to give blood.</s>One Japanese national has been confirmed dead and four more were wounded in Sri Lankan bomb attacks over the weekend that killed about 290 people, including at least 35 foreigners, a Japanese government official said Monday.

According to another official, the slain Japanese woman was local resident Kaori Takahashi who was having breakfast with her family at the Shangri-La Hotel. An official at the Japanese Embassy was said to be among the four injured in one of the eight blasts in Colombo and other parts of the country.

Telecommunications firm KDDI Corp said a male employee who was on a business trip was also injured in the attacks targeting luxury hotels and churches as Easter Sunday masses were in progress.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday expressed his condolences to the Sri Lankan people and said he felt "a deep sadness and great anger" at the attacks, which local authorities believe were carried out by religious extremists.

"Japan will stand with Sri Lanka and the international community to combat terrorism," he told reporters in Tokyo.

The Japanese government said it has dispatched a special unit to Sri Lanka to gather information from local investigative authorities on the Japanese victims and the attackers.

In total, at least 500 people were injured in the attacks.

Sri Lanka, an island nation sitting off the southeastern tip of India, has a population of about 21 million people. There were 767 Japanese nationals living there as of October 2017.

The bombings could deal a blow to the country's tourism industry, which had been recovering following the end of a 26-year-long civil war in 2009.

Major Japanese travel agency JTB Corp said it had confirmed by Sunday night the safety of all tourists staying in Sri Lanka via its tours. The company said it was weighing whether to proceed with upcoming tours during the 10-day Golden Week holiday beginning this Saturday.

The Tokyo office of Sri Lankan travel agency Yathra Travels Ltd has already seen several cancellations among the roughly 100 people signed up for tours during the holiday period, an agency official said. The company said it is considering changing itineraries to ensure the safety of tourists.

Katsuyuki Matsumoto, head of the Sri-Lanka Asia Association, lamented the terror attacks, saying the country "with beautiful sea and mountains is a desirable resort." The association works with travel agencies and advises them on tour planning.

In the blasts, foreign nationals including Chinese, American and Dutch were also killed. According to local reports, 13 people were arrested in connection with the bombings but no claim of responsibility has been made so far.</s>NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The seaside Sri Lankan fishing town of Negombo has long been called “Little Rome,” a reference to its abundance of churches and its place at the center of the country’s small Catholic community.

But it was also known for its tolerance. Negombo’s Angurukaramulla Temple is a well-known stop for Buddhist pilgrims. Its Grand Mosque is famed for its beauty. The Hindu god Rama is said to have been nearby before his great battle with the demon-king Ravana.

During Sri Lanka’s long and bloody civil war, Negombo, about an hour north of the capital, Colombo, was largely spared the violence that raged elsewhere in the country.

“It is a safe haven for all,” Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said at a religious conference held in the town in 2016.

But all that changed Sunday when a bomb ripped through Negombo’s St. Sebastian’s Church, one of a half-dozen coordinated attacks on churches and high-end hotels that killed nearly 300 people. At least 110 were killed in the attack at St. Sebastian’s, Ranjith said Monday.

“I was shocked when I saw the horrible devastation caused at the church,” he said after visiting St. Sebastian’s, pleading for tolerance and urging Christians not to seek revenge. Authorities have blamed the Sri Lankan Muslim group National Thowfeek Jamaath.

But in the hours after the blasts, even Ranjith called on officials to “mercilessly” punish those responsible for attacks, saying “only animals can behave like that.”

Catholicism is everywhere in Negombo, a town of about 140,000 people with dozens of churches and perhaps hundreds of small roadside Catholic shrines. About 65% of Negombo is Roman Catholic, according to census data, though Catholics make up just 6% of the country’s population.

Negombo’s economy has long been dominated by fishing, but the tourism industry has grown quickly in recent years because of the town’s beaches and its proximity to the country’s international airport.

On Monday, many people came to pray in the garden outside the church, gathering at a statue of St. Sebastian, an early Christian martyr who was riddled with arrows during Roman persecutions.

Kumari Siriwardane had tears in her eyes as she spoke.

“I feel so sad about our village, our people, our religion,” said Siriwardane, 58. “The doors of our houses are closed.”

She struggled to find words to express her pain: “I feel very sad. Very very sad.”</s>A British father wandered the streets in a bloody shirt after his entire family were killed in the Sri Lanka Easter terror attacks.

Ben Nicholson was on holiday with his wife Anita, 42, son Alex, 11, and young daughter Annabel, who have been confirmed dead.

He was seen walking the streets "covered in blood" after the atrocity, according to a medic at the emergency triage department in the National Hospital in Colombo, reports the Mail .

Pushpa Zoysa said: "I saw him covered in blood like this, walking up and down just there. He spoke to me twice, asking about his family.

"He was not running or crying, he was shocked. We wondered whether he was confused but he seemed in control. He just kept asking about his family members.

"He was walking around completely alone and I feel sorry for him but there were so many dead and dying people here, I didn't have time to speak to him more. Eventually he left."

The family were reported to have been dining in the Shangri-La when the bomber struck.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Mrs Nicholson was based in Singapore as managing counsel at the mining and metals company Anglo American.

Mr Nicholson was a partner in the Singapore office of Kennedys Legal Solutions and advises clients on insurance law.

The devastating eight blasts killed 290 people and injured more than 500.

Members of little known Islamic group National Thowheed Jamath are alleged to have blown themselves up at three churches and three hotels on the Indian Ocean island with help from an international network.

All of the Easter Sunday bombers were Sri Lankan nationals, and the government has said there were several warnings of possible attacks in the days before the massacre that included eight Britons among the dead.

A local Muslim extremist group now stands accused of the worst attacks since the end of Sri Lanka's civil war in 2009 and one of the world's worst since 9/11 - but little is known about them.

Hospital worker Pushpa Zoysa described the scenes of carnage as ambulances arrived with body parts and "badly injured people"

Billionaire owner of ASOS Anders Holch Povlsen lost three of his four children in the attacks.

His daughter posted a heartbreaking family holiday photo just three ago.

Povlsen and his family were on holiday on the Indian Ocean island when the three children died in one of the Easter Sunday bombings targeting hotels and churches.

Mr Povlsen's daughter Alma shared an Instagram photo of her siblings Astrid, Agnes and Alfred - calling them "three little bears" - in front of a swimming pool lined by palm trees just three days before the attacks left 290 people dead, including eight Britons.

The 46-year-old billionaire and his wife Anne have not said which of their three children died in the bombing.</s>Nearly 300 people have died after a series of bombings in Sri Lanka.

Here is what we know so far:

– Six nearly simultaneous explosions at three churches and three hotels took place at Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa on Easter Sunday.

– In Colombo, St Anthony’s Shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels were targeted in the first wave of explosions.

– Other blasts were reported at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

– Three police officers were killed when they went to question suspects following a tip.

– There were two further explosions later at a guesthouse in Dehiwala and near an overpass at Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo.

– Sri Lankan officials have described it as a terrorist attack by religious extremists. Most of the eight blasts are suspected suicide attacks.

– Police will examine reports that the intelligence community failed to detect or warn of possible suicide attacks as part of their investigation.

– There are British, US, Turkish, Indian, Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese victims among the 27 foreign nationals killed.

– More than 500 people have been injured.

– Thirteen suspects have been arrested, according to officials. No-one has taken responsibility for the massacre.

– Sri Lankan authorities blocked access to many social media services in the wake of the attack, with Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp all affected.</s>COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- A van exploded on Monday near a Sri Lankan church that was affected by Sunday's bombings. No injuries were reported in the new explosion.Nearly 300 peole were killed and hundreds more injured in the coordinated Easter Sunday bombings that ripped through Sri Lankan churches and luxury hotels, ABC News reports The Sunday attack was carried out by seven suicide bombers from a domestic militant group named National Thowfeek Jamaath, a government official said Monday.All of the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens, but authorities suspect foreign links, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said at a news conference.Earlier, Ariyananda Welianga, a government forensic crime investigator, said an analysis of the attackers' body parts made clear that they were suicide bombers. He said most of the attacks were carried out by a single bomber, with two at Colombo's Shangri-La Hotel.The bombings, Sri Lanka's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war ended a decade ago on the island nation off the southeast tip of India, killed at least 290 people with more than 500 wounded, Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said Monday.Meanwhile, Sri Lankan police investigating the bombings are examining reports that intelligence agencies had warnings of possible attacks, officials said Monday.Two government ministers have alluded to intelligence failures. Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando tweeted, "Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored." He said his father had heard of the possibility of an attack as well and had warned him not to enter popular churches.And Mano Ganeshan, the minister for national integration, said his ministry's security officers had been warned by their division about the possibility that two suicide bombers would target politicians.The police's Criminal Investigation Department, which is handling the investigation into the blasts, will look into those reports, Gunasekara said.Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, said the attacks could have been thwarted."We placed our hands on our heads when we came to know that these deaths could have been avoided. Why this was not prevented?" he said.Earlier, Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said 13 suspects had been arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Wijewardena said most of the bombings were believed to have been suicide attacks.But officials have yet to say who they believe is behind the attacks. The Tamil Tigers, once a powerful rebel army known for its use of suicide bombers, was crushed by the government in 2009, and had little history of targeting Christians. While anti-Muslim bigotry has swept the island in recent years, fed by Buddhist nationalists, the island also has no history of violent Muslim militants. The country's small Christian community has seen only scattered incidents of harassment in recent years.The explosions - mostly in or around Colombo, the capital - collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in one scene after another of smoke, soot, blood, broken glass, screams and wailing alarms.A morgue worker in the town of Negombo, outside Colombo, where St. Sebastian's Church was targeted, said many bodies were hard to identify because of the extent of the injuries. He spoke on condition of anonymity.Lakmal, a 41-year-old businessman in Negombo who declined to provide his last name, went with his family to St. Sebastian's for Easter Mass. He said they all escaped the blast unscathed, but he remains haunted by images of bodies being taken from the sanctuary and tossed into a truck.At the Shangri-La Hotel, a witness said "people were being dragged out" after the blast."There was blood everywhere," said Bhanuka Harischandra a 24-year-old from Colombo and founder of a tech marketing company. He was heading to the hotel for a meeting when it was bombed. "People didn't know what was going on. It was panic mode."Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three bombed hotels and one of the churches, St. Anthony's Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from a variety of countries were recovered.The U.S. said "several" Americans were among the dead, while Britain, India, China, Japan and Portugal said they, too, lost citizens.The streets were largely deserted Monday morning, with most shops closed and a heavy deployment of soldiers and police. Stunned clergy and onlookers gathered at St. Anthony's Shrine, looking past the soldiers to the stricken church.The Sri Lankan government initially lifted a curfew that had been imposed during the night but reinstated it Monday afternoon. Most social media remained blocked Monday after officials said they needed to curtail the spread of false information and ease tension in the country of about 21 million people.Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could trigger instability in Sri Lanka, and he vowed to "vest all necessary powers with the defense forces" to take action against those responsible.The scale of the bloodshed recalled the worst days of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, when the Tamil Tigers, from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from the Sinhalese-dominated country. The Sinhalese are largely Buddhist. The Tamils are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, is about 70 percent Buddhist. In recent years, tensions have been running high between hard-line Buddhist monks and Muslims.Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka condemned the church attacks, as did countries around the world, and Pope Francis expressed condolences at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing in Rome.Six nearly simultaneous blasts took place in the morning at the shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo, as well as at two churches outside Colombo.A few hours later, two more blasts occurred just outside Colombo, one at a guesthouse where two people were killed, the other near an overpass, Atapattu said.Also, three police officers were killed during a search at a suspected safe house on the outskirts of Colombo when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, authorities said.Authorities said a large bomb had been found and defused late Sunday on an access road to the international airport.Air Force Group Captain Gihan Seneviratne said Monday that authorities found a pipe bomb filled with 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives. It was large enough to have caused damage to a 400-meter (400-yard) radius, he said.Harischandra, who witnessed the attack at the Shangri-La Hotel, said there was "a lot of tension" after the bombings, but added: "We've been through these kinds of situations before."He said Sri Lankans are "an amazing bunch" and noted that his social media feed was flooded with photos of people standing in long lines to give blood.</s>Sri Lankan officials failed to heed warnings from intelligence agencies about the threat of an attack by a domestic radical Muslim group that officials have blamed for the Easter Sunday bombings which killed more than 200 people, a government minister has said.

The co-ordinated bombings that ripped through churches and luxury hotels were carried out by seven suicide bombers from a militant group called National Thowfeek Jamaath, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said.

International intelligence agencies warned of the attacks several times starting on 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.

On April 11, police wrote to the heads of security of the judiciary and diplomatic security division, he added.

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, Mr 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 Mr 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.

All of the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens, but authorities suspect foreign links, Mr Senaratne said.

Earlier, Ariyananda Welianga, a government forensic crime investigator, said an analysis of the attackers’ body parts made clear that they were suicide bombers. He said most of the attacks were carried out by a single bomber, with two at the Shangri-La Hotel in the capital, Colombo.

The bombings, Sri Lanka’s deadliest violence since a devastating civil war ended a decade ago on the island nation, killed at least 290 people and wounded more than 500 others, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan police investigating the bombings are examining reports that intelligence agencies had warnings of possible attacks, officials said.

Two government ministers have alluded to intelligence failures.

Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando tweeted: “Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored.”

He said his father had heard of the possibility of an attack as well and had warned him not to enter popular churches.

And Mano Ganeshan, the minister for national integration, said his ministry’s security officers had been warned by their division about the possibility that two suicide bombers would target politicians.

The police’s Criminal Investigation Department, which is handling the investigation into the blasts, will look into those reports, Mr Gunasekara said.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, said the attacks could have been thwarted.

“We placed our hands on our heads when we came to know that these deaths could have been avoided. Why this was not prevented?” he said.

Earlier, Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said 13 suspects had been arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Mr Wijewardena said most of the bombings were believed to have been suicide attacks.

But officials have yet to say who they believe is behind the attacks.

The Tamil Tigers, once a powerful rebel army known for its use of suicide bombers, was crushed by the government in 2009, and had little history of targeting Christians.

While anti-Muslim bigotry has swept the island in recent years, fed by Buddhist nationalists, the island also has no history of violent Muslim militants. The country’s small Christian community has seen only scattered incidents of harassment in recent years.

The explosions — mostly in or around Colombo — collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in one scene after another of smoke, soot, blood, broken glass, screams and wailing alarms.

A morgue worker in the town of Negombo, outside Colombo, where St Sebastian’s Church was targeted, said many bodies were hard to identify because of the extent of the injuries.

Lakmal, a 41-year-old businessman in Negombo who declined to give his last name, went with his family to St Sebastian’s for Easter Mass.

He said they all escaped the blast unscathed, but he remains haunted by images of bodies being taken from the sanctuary and tossed into a truck.

At the Shangri-La Hotel, a witness said “people were being dragged out” after the blast.

“There was blood everywhere,” said Bhanuka Harischandra, a 24-year-old from Colombo and founder of a tech marketing company, who was heading to the hotel for a meeting when it was bombed.

“People didn’t know what was going on. It was panic mode.”

Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three bombed hotels and one of the churches, St Anthony’s Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from a variety of countries had been recovered.

The US said “several” Americans were among the dead, while Britain, India, China, Japan, Portugal and Australia said they, too, had lost citizens.

The streets were largely deserted on Monday morning, with most shops closed and a heavy deployment of soldiers and police. Stunned clergy and onlookers gathered at St Anthony’s Shrine, looking past the soldiers to the stricken church.

The Sri Lankan government initially lifted a curfew that had been imposed during the night but reinstated it on Monday afternoon.

Most social media remained blocked on Monday after officials said they needed to curtail the spread of false information and ease tension in the country of about 21 million people.

Prime Minister Mr Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could trigger instability in Sri Lanka, and vowed to “vest all necessary powers with the defence forces” to take action against those responsible.

The scale of the bloodshed recalled the worst days of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, when the Tamil Tigers, from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from the Sinhalese-dominated country. The Sinhalese are largely Buddhist. The Tamils are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, is about 70% Buddhist. In recent years, tensions have been running high between hardline Buddhist monks and Muslims.

Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka condemned the church attacks, as did countries around the world, and Pope Francis expressed condolences at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing in Rome.

Six nearly simultaneous blasts took place in the morning at the shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo, as well as at two churches outside Colombo.

A few hours later, two more blasts occurred just outside Colombo, one at a guesthouse where two people were killed, the other near an overpass.

Three police officers were killed during a search at a suspected safe house on the outskirts of Colombo when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, authorities said.

They said a large bomb had been found and defused late on Sunday on an access road to the international airport.

Air Force Group Captain Gihan Seneviratne said on Monday that authorities had found a pipe bomb filled with 110lb (50kg) of explosives. It was large enough to have caused damage to a 400-yard (400m) radius, he said.

Mr Harischandra, who witnessed the attack at the Shangri-La Hotel, said there was “a lot of tension” after the bombings, but added: “We’ve been through these kinds of situations before.”

He said Sri Lankans are “an amazing bunch” and noted that his social media feed was flooded with photos of people standing in long lines to give blood.</s>The true toll of Sunday’s attacks in Sri Lanka was starting to come into focus on Monday, as family members, government officials and news reports offered the first glimpse of the people who lost their lives.

Officials have confirmed citizens from at least eight countries, including the United States, were killed in the attacks.

Information about Sri Lankan victims was initially sparse, but the names of some foreign victims began to appear in the international news media, a few of which The Times was able to confirm. We will update this article as we learn more about the people who died.

[Follow the latest updates on the bombing and the response here, including the current death toll.]

As of Monday morning, the names of two victims of the bombings at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, the capital, had been made public.</s>COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Police in Sri Lanka said Monday the investigation into the Easter Sunday bombings will examine reports that the intelligence community failed to detect or warn of possible suicide attacks before the violence.

The nine bombings of churches, luxury hotels and other sites was Sri Lanka’s deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said Monday the death toll had risen overnight to 290 dead with more than 500 wounded.

Two government ministers have alluded to intelligence failures. Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando tweeted, “Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored.” He said his father had heard of the possibility of an attack as well and had warned him not to enter popular churches.

And Mano Ganeshan, the minister for national integration, said the security officers within his ministry had been warned by their division about the possibility two suicide bombers would target politicians.

Gunasekara said the Criminal Investigation Department investigating the blasts will look into the reports.

Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena previously described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said 13 suspects were arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Wijewardena said most of the bombings were believed to have been suicide attacks.

The explosions — mostly in or around Colombo, the capital — collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in one scene after another of smoke, soot, blood, broken glass, screams and wailing alarms. Victims were carried out of blood-spattered pews.

“People were being dragged out,” said Bhanuka Harischandra, of Colombo, a 24-year-old founder of a tech marketing company who was going to the Shangri-La Hotel for a meeting when it was bombed. “People didn’t know what was going on. It was panic mode.”

Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three bombed hotels and one of the churches, St. Anthony’s Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from a variety of countries were recovered.

The U.S. said “several” Americans were among the dead, while Britain, India, China, Japan and Portugal said they, too, lost citizens.

The streets were largely deserted Monday morning, with most shops closed and a heavy deployment of soldiers and police. Stunned clergy and onlookers gathered at St. Anthony’s Shrine, looking past the soldiers to the stricken church.

The Sri Lankan government lifted a curfew that had been imposed during the night. But most social media remained blocked Monday after officials said they needed to curtail the spread of false information and ease tension in the country of about 21 million people.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could trigger instability in Sri Lanka, and he vowed to “vest all necessary powers with the defense forces” to take action against those responsible.

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on Sri Lanka’s government to “mercilessly” punish those responsible “because only animals can behave like that.”

The scale of the bloodshed recalled the worst days of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from the Buddhist-majority country. The Tamils are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, is about 70 percent Buddhist. Scattered incidents of anti-Christian harassment have occurred in recent years, but nothing on the scale of what happened Sunday.

There is also no history of violent Muslim militants in Sri Lanka. However, tensions have been running high more recently between hard-line Buddhist monks and Muslims.

Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka condemned the church attacks, as did countries around the world, and Pope Francis expressed condolences at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing in Rome.

“I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence,” Francis said.

Six nearly simultaneous blasts took place in the morning at the shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo, as well as at two churches outside Colombo, according to a Sri Lankan military spokesman, Brig. Sumith Atapattu.

A few hours later, two more blasts occurred just outside Colombo, one of them at a guesthouse, where two people were killed, the other near an overpass, Atapattu said.

Also, three police officers were killed during a search at a suspected safe house on the outskirts of Colombo when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, authorities said.

The Shangri-La’s second-floor restaurant was gutted, with the ceiling and windows blown out. Loose wires hung down and tables were overturned in the blackened space. From outside the police cordon, three bodies could be seen covered in white sheets.

Sri Lankan forces defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, ending a civil war that took over 100,000 lives, with both sides accused of grave human rights violations.

Harischandra, who witnessed the attack at the Shangri-La Hotel, said there was “a lot of tension” after the bombings, but added: “We’ve been through these kinds of situations before.”

He said Sri Lankans are “an amazing bunch” and noted that his social media feed was flooded with photos of people standing in long lines to give blood.

Associated Press writers Sheila Norman-Culp and Gregory Katz in London; Sarah DiLorenzo in New York; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow; Nicole Winfield at the Vatican; Adam Schreck in Bangkok; and Emily Schmall in New Delhi contributed to this report.</s>ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Two Turkish citizens were among the more than 200 killed in bomb blasts at three churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday, Turkey’s government said in state-run media on Sunday.

The Turks were Serhan Narici and Yigit Cavus, engineers working on a project in Sri Lanka, Anadolu agency said, citing Turkey’s ambassador to Sri Lanka and its foreign ministry.

“Unfortunately we lost our citizens...in the treacherous attacks in Sri Lanka,” Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a statement. Cavusoglu said the ministry was in contact with their families and it would ensure that the funerals were held in Turkey shortly.
A series of explosions at churches and hotels in four cities in Sri Lanka, including the nation's commercial capital and largest city Colombo, kills at least 359 people and wounds around 500 others. ISIL has since claimed responsibility for the attacks.