Thread by @AFP

#BREAKING The blasts hit three high-end hotels and one church in Colombo, while two additional churches are targeted outside the capital, police say

#BREAKING At least 42 dead in Sri Lanka church, hotel blasts: police

#BREAKING Toll rises to 52 killed in Sri Lanka blasts: police to AFP

#UPDATE The fatalities include at least 42 people killed in Colombo, where three hotels and a church were hit, and another 10 dead in the town of Batticoloa, where a church was attacked

#BREAKING Sri Lanka police chief warned of possible suicide attacks before Sunday blasts: document

#UPDATE At least 42 are killed in Colombo as blasts rip through three hotels and a church with another 10 dead in the town of Batticaloa, in a church attack and reports of casualties in another explosion north of the capital u.afp.com/Jxcq

#BREAKING Toll in Sri Lanka blasts rises to 129: hospital sources

#BREAKING At least nine foreigners dead in Sri Lanka blasts: police official

#UPDATE Sri Lanka death toll rises to at least 137; 45 in Colombo, where three hotels and a church are hit; 67 in a church in Negombo north of capital; 25 at a church in Batticaloa, in the east; no immediate claims of responsibility u.afp.com/JxcM

#BREAKING Toll in Sri Lanka blasts rises to 156, including 35 foreigners: police

#UPDATE: The Catholic Church in the Holy Land has voiced support for Sri Lanka's Christians and condemned Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels there that killed at least 156 people
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#BREAKING Sri Lanka attacks 'truly appalling': British PM

#BREAKING New blast in Sri Lankan capital, two dead: police spokesman

In her Easter message released just hours before the attacks, May offered her support to Christians around the world who face "huge danger" due to their faith
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#UPDATE The seventh attack hit a hotel in the southern Colombo suburb of Dehiwala, after a string of explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka's capital
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#BREAKING Eighth blast hits Sri Lankan capital: police

#BREAKING EU's Juncker expresses 'horror and sadness' after Sri Lanka attacks

#BREAKING Sri Lanka defence minister orders night curfew after blasts

#BREAKING Sri Lanka imposes 'temporary' social media ban after blasts
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#BREAKING Sri Lanka curfew imposed immediately 'until further notice': police

#BREAKING Pope stands with victims of 'such cruel violence' in Sri Lanka

#BREAKING Police say eighth Sri Lanka blast was suicide bomb, killed three

#BREAKING France's Macron condemns 'odious' Sri Lanka attacks

#BREAKING Germany's Merkel condemns 'religious hate and intolerance' after Sri Lanka attacks

#BREAKING @realDonaldTrump offers Sri Lanka condolences on 'horrible terrorist attacks'

@realDonaldTrump Sri Lankan Special Task Force personnel are pictured outside a house during a raid, after a suicide blast had killed police searching the property in the Orugodawatta area of the capital Colombo, following a series of blasts in churches and hotels
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@realDonaldTrump #BREAKING Sri Lanka attackers must be 'punished mercilessly': cardinal

@realDonaldTrump Hospital sources say British, Dutch and American citizens are among the 161 killed
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@realDonaldTrump #BREAKING Toll in Sri Lanka blasts rises to 207: police

Sri Lanka's most senior Catholic figure expressed his "deepest sorrow and sympathy" for those affected by the attacks and urged national unity, while calling on the government to find the attackers behind deadly blasts
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#BREAKING Eight arrested in connection with Sri Lanka blasts: PM

Religious and world leaders have condemned a series of blasts in Sri Lanka that killed more than 200 people on Sunday, including dozens of foreigners -- with British, Dutch and American citizens believed to be among them u.afp.com/JxGj

The suicide bomber waited patiently in a queue for the Easter Sunday breakfast buffet at Sri Lanka's Cinnamon Grand hotel before setting off explosives strapped to his back u.afp.com/JxNv

Government says eight people arrested and investigators would look into whether the attackers had "overseas links"
📷Sri Lankan Special Task Force during a raid, after a suicide blast killed police searching the property in the Orugodawatta area of Colombo

Colombo’s streets were deserted after the government imposed a nationwide curfew and curbed social media access to prevent "wrong information" from spreading

Chaotic scenes at Colombo airport as worried travellers who had just arrived in the country formed huge lines at the only taxi counter that was open, and watched a TV screen for updates

#BREAKING Improvised bomb made safe near Colombo airport: police

#BREAKING 13 under arrest for Sri Lanka blasts: police

#UPDATE Police arrest 13, government says investigators looking into whether attackers had "overseas links" after more than 200 die in series of bomb blasts that tore through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka u.afp.com/JxxG

#BREAKING Sri Lanka blasts toll rises to 290: police spokesman

#UPDATE At least 290 are now known to have died in Sri Lanka after eight apparently co-ordinated explosions targeted Easter worshippers and high end hotels popular with international guests, with a further 500 wounded u.afp.com/JxxM

When Dilip Fernando arrived at St Sebastian's church in Sri Lanka's Negombo on Easter Sunday, it was so crowded he went elsewhere for mass, a decision that probably saved his life u.afp.com/Jxxv

VIDEO: St Sebastian's church: A day after Sri Lanka explosions

#BREAKING Sri Lanka government orders new curfew as attack tensions remain high

#UPDATE At least 290 people were killed and more than 500 injured in bomb blasts that ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday as police announced 24 arrests over the country's worst attacks for more than a decade. u.afp.com/Jxfm

#BREAKING Sri Lanka government says local Islamist group behind blasts

#BREAKING Sri Lanka government declares state of emergency from midnight Monday

#BREAKING 87 bomb detonators found at Colombo bus station: Sri Lanka police

#UPDATE The Sri Lankan government says it believes a local Islamist extremist group was behind deadly suicide bomb blasts on Easter Sunday that killed nearly 300 people as it announced a national state of emergency beginning at midnight. u.afp.com/Jxfm

#BREAKING Blast as police try to defuse new bomb found near Colombo church: Sri Lanka police

#BREAKING US Secretary of State Pompeo: Battle against extremism in Sri Lanka 'America's fight, too'

#UPDATE Before being named prime suspects in Sri Lanka's Easter bomb suicide attacks, the little-known Islamic extremist group National Thowheeth Jama'ath's main claim to notoriety was being linked to vandalising of Buddhist statues u.afp.com/Jxgz

#UPDATE Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen lost three of his four children in the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, a spokesman for his clothing retail group Bestseller says u.afp.com/JxMP

For many Sri Lankans, Sunday's attacks against churches and high-end hotels brought back painful memories of a conflict that lasted three decades and killed as many as 100,000 people u.afp.com/JxQX

Tourists are scrambling to flee Sri Lanka and cancelling holidays after a string of deadly suicide blasts that have sparked concerns the lucrative tourism industry could be sent into a tailspin u.afp.com/JxAW

Some hid their eyes, some collapsed in tears as gruesome images of victims from Sri Lanka's Easter massacre were projected onto a screen in front of distraught relatives waiting to identify their loved ones at a Colombo morgue
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