Sri Lanka attacks: Police warned of terror blasts 10 days earlier
Sri
Lankan authorities have 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.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 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.”
It
came as 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.”
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.
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. The defence ministry said last
night seven suspects had been taken into custody.
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.
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”.
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.
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.”