Who are the victims?

Shoes and belongings of victims are collected as evidence at St Sebastian's Church in NegomboImage copyright
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A spate of attacks has claimed hundreds of victims across Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is in shock after a wave of bombings targeting churches and hotels left 290 people dead. Churches were hit during Easter services on Sunday in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.

Most of those killed are thought to be Sri Lankan nationals but officials say dozens of foreigners are among the dead including British, Indian, Danish and Chinese nationals.

The government temporarily restricted some social media networks to try and halt the spread of misinformation, so details have been slow to emerge. But this is what we know so far about those who lost their lives.

Shantha Mayadunne, a Sri Lankan celebrity chef

One of the first victims to have been identified last night was Sri Lankan celebrity chef Shantha Mayadunne.

Her daughter Nisanga Mayadunne had posted a picture of the family having breakfast in the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo shortly before an explosion occurred there.

One of their family members later posted on Facebook confirming that both Shantha and Nisanga had died, saying “no words can describe the pain”.

Four servers at the Cinnamon Grand hotel

Four Sri Lankan staff members at the Taprobane restaurant in the Cinnamon Grand hotel have died in the attacks.

“It was a busy morning. It’s Sunday morning during buffet breakfast so it’s one of our busiest periods,” the Cinnamon Grand hotel spokesman told the BBC.

“They were servers at the restaurant. One of them was working at the live food stations making hoppers [a Sri Lankan pancake].”

They have been identified only as Shantha, Sanjeewani, Ibrahim and Nisthar.

Three staff members at the Shangri-La

The Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo announced in a Facebook statement that three of its staff were “fatally injured in the course of their duties”.

No further details are known so far.

ASOS billionaire’s children

Three children of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen died in the attacks, a spokesman has confirmed to the BBC. The company was unable to reveal any more details at this time and asked for the family’s privacy to be respected.

One of his children had four days ago posted a picture on Instagram that was geo-tagged Sri Lanka.

Mr Povlsen, 46, owns the Bestseller clothing chain and is the largest stakeholder in the hugely popular online retailer ASOS.

Rasina, 58, from the Indian state of Kerala

According to local media outlets, Rasina, whose name has also been spelt by other outlets as Razeena – originally from Kerala – lived in Dubai with her husband but travelled to Colombo to meet her relatives.

The 58-year-old had been in the Sri Lankan capital with her husband. He left for Dubai on Sunday morning and she was due to leave Colombo on a later flight on the same day.

But she was killed shortly after checking out of the Shangri-La hotel.

“Her life was just snubbed out in a few hours,” her brother-in-law Usman Kukkady told news outlet the New Indian Express.

The couple have a son and daughter who are both living in the US, said the news outlet.

Seven Indians, including four from a political party

Seven Indian nationals, four of whom were political party workers from Bangalore, died in the bombings.

Two of the victims were identified by city officials as K G Hanumantharayappa and M Rangappa. They were said to be members of the Janata Dal Party (JDP).

The chief minister of the Indian state of Karnataka said in a tweet that he had known both members personally, adding that he was “deeply shocked”.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also identified three other victims as Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh, and the Indian High Commission tweeted the names of two more victims: Vemurai Tulsiram and S R Nagaraj. One victim’s brother-in-law identified them as Shivanna.

The JDP workers had decided to take a holiday in Sri Lanka after polling for the Lok Sabha elections ended in the state on 18 April.

“They reached the hotel around 08:00 or so and headed straight to the breakfast table when they were killed,” S. Shivakumar, Shivanna’s brother-in-law, told BBC Hindi’s Imran Qureshi.

Turkish engineers Serhan Selcuk Narici and Yigit Ali Cavus

Two Turkish nationals were killed, state news agency Anadolu reported.

Engineer Serhan Selcuk Narici moved to Colombo in March 2017, according to his Facebook profile.

His father, Baba Memhet Narici, told Anadolu that his son was an electrical engineer. He had last been doing some work at the US embassy building in Sri Lanka.

“He sent me a WhatsApp message this morning at 5am saying ‘Good Morning'”, said Mr Narici. “That was the last I heard from him.”

The other victim – Yigit Ali Cavus – was also an engineer.

“He was a brilliant child. He graduated with honours from the Istanbul Technical University and spoke two languages,” said his father.

It is not yet clear where they were when the attacks took place.

Two Australians from one family

Two Australians were killed in the attacks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed.

They were members of the same family who were living in Sri Lanka, he said. There are no further details at this point.

The grandson of a Bangladeshi politician

The grandson of Bangladeshi MP Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim has been killed in the attacks.

Mr Selim’s grandson – who is himself a prominent member of the Awami League political party – died in an explosion in the hotel where the family was staying, according to local media reports. It is not clear which hotel this was.

Mr Selim’s personal assistant told news outlet the Dhaka Tribune that the boy’s father was also injured in the blast.

Dieter Kowalski from the US state of Colorado

Forty-year-old Dieter Kowalski, a Denver resident, was in Sri Lanka on a work trip. On Friday, he had posted on Facebook: “And the fun begins. Love these work trips. 24 hours of flying. See you soon Sri Lanka!”

Mr Kowalski worked for Pearson, an education management company, as a senior technical operations lead. The company confirmed to NBC News on Monday that Mr Kowalski had been killed shortly after he arrived at the Cinnamon Grand hotel.

“Colleagues who knew Dieter well talk about how much fun he was to be around, how big-hearted and full-spirited he was,” Pearson chief executive John Fallon wrote in a letter to employees.

Mr Kowalski’s brother, Derrick, also shared on Facebook: “We have all lost a brother today.”

source: bbc.com