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Eight arrested in connection with Sri Lanka blasts: PM

21 April 2019, MVT 22:05
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe (2nd R) arrives to visit the site of a bomb attack at St. Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade in Colombo on April 21, 2019. - A string of blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing at least 156 people, including 35 foreigners. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP)
21 April 2019, MVT 22:05

Eight people have been arrested in connection with a string of deadly blasts that killed more than 200 people in Sri Lanka on Sunday, the country's prime minister said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said "so far the names that have come up are local," but that investigators would look into whether the attackers had any "overseas links".

He also acknowledged that "information was there" about possible attacks.

"While this goes on we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken," he said.

But he said the government's first priority would be to "apprehend the terrorists."

"First and foremost we have to ensure that terrorism does not lift its head in Sri Lanka."

A total of eight blasts tore through high-end hotels and churches across Sri Lanka on Sunday, in the worst violence since the country's civil war ended a decade ago.

At least two of the blasts involved suicide bombers, sources told AFP.

Colombo, Sri Lanka | AFP

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