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Home > News > World News > Article > Sri Lanka blasts Another blast near church emergency from midnight

Sri Lanka blasts: Another blast near church; emergency from midnight

Updated on: 22 April,2019 05:25 PM IST  | 
mid-day online desk |

Fresh explosion takes place when Sri Lanka's Special Task Force units were diffusing explosive device found inside a van stationed near St. Anthony's church in Kochchikade, according to a Sri Lankan news portal. No casualties reported

Sri Lanka blasts: Another blast near church; emergency from midnight

Soldiers and hospital workers unload the body of a bomb blast victim from a container in a hospital in Negombo on April 22, 2019, a day after a nearby church was hit in a series of explosions targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka/ AFP

A blast which has been termed as 'controlled explosion' was recorded near the St. Anthony's church in Kochchikade here on Monday, according to reports in Sri Lankan media. According to reports from a Sri Lankan news portal, the fresh blast took place when Sri Lanka's Special Task Force's (STF) bomb disposal units were diffusing explosive device found inside a van stationed near the church.No casualties were reported so far in the incident, as per the report.


The Sri Lankan government declared a national emergency in the wake of the deadly Easter blasts that killed 290 people. The state of emergency will be enforced from midnight Monday. More than 500 people have been wounded in the eight blasts that ripped through the island country of Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.



President's media unit issued a statement that the NSC, after a joint meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena, a "conditional state of emergency" from midnight to be announced. It said the measures would target terrorism and would not limit freedom of expression.

"These will be limited to counterterrorism regulations. This is being done to allow the police and the three forces to ensure public security," the statement said.

Emergency regulations would give police sweeping powers to deal with situations of breaches of security. The government also declared Tuesday as a national day of mourning.

The statement said that Sirisena will seek international assistance to combat terrorism in the island nation.  The intelligence unit has pointed out support of international terror groups behind the local terrorists, suspected of plotting the deadly Easter blasts. "The international assistance would be sought to combat them," the statement said.

Meanwhile, as many as 87 bomb detonators were found on Monday at a bus station in Colombo, police said, a day after a series of deadly blasts killed 290 people and wounded more than 500 others in the island nation. The bomb detonators were found at the Central Colombo bus station in Pettah area.

Initially, the police found 12 bomb detonators scattered on the ground and on conducting further search 75 more detonators were found, a police statement said.

On Easter Sunday, a string of eight powerful blasts, including suicide attacks, struck churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka, killing 290 people, including three Indians, and shattering a decade of peace in the island nation since the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

The blasts - one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history - targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa at around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

Explosions were also reported from three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.

(With inputs from PTI)

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