Reuters reported a further blast happened near St Anthony’s shrine in the Kochchikade district of Colombo on Monday, a day after a series of suicide bombers targetted churches and high-end hotels in the island nation. Officials are carrying out searches to find those behind the attacks.The 87 “low-explosive detonators” were found at the main bus station – Bastian Mawatha Private station – in Pettah, a neighbourhood in the east of the centre of the capital, a government spokesman said.
The latest explosion occured in a van near a church in the distric of Kochchikade as security officials were working to defuse an explosive they had recently stumbled upon.
The bomb squad were focused on the area where scores of people were killed in one of the suicide bombings on Easter Sunday.
One witness told Reuters: “The van exploded when the bomb defusing unit of the STF (Special Task Force) and air force tried to diffuse the bomb.”
The country’s president is set to implement a national emergency at midnight on Monday. The death toll has risen to 290 and around 500 people have been wounded.
This will give police and the military more powers to detain and interrogate people without court orders.
President Maithripala Sirisena is seeking assistance from foreign powers to trace international links to the seven blasts which killed 290 and injured more than 500 people.
No group has claimed responsibilty for the attack but a local extreme Muslims are believed to have been behind them.
Health minister Rajitha Senaratne said he believed the Islamist group National Towheed Jamath (NTJ) was responsible.
Pope Francis has called for universal condemnation of what he sai were “never justifiable terrorist, inhuman acts”.
Hours after Sunday’s attacks, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the government had some prior information about a possible attack by Islamist extremists.
Reuters reported it had seen a domestic intelligence report dated April 11 which said a foreign intelligence agency had warned the authorities of possible attacks.
This is a breaking news story and is being updated.