Dead bodies of victims lie inside St. Sebastian's Church damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo / AP
Dead bodies of victims lie inside St. Sebastian's Church damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo / AP
The death toll in the Sri Lankan massacre has jumped to almost 300 with around 500 people injured.
News agency Reuters has said local police have confirmed 290 people have been killed following a series of devastating explosions which ripped through luxury hotels and churches holding Easter services on the island nation on Sunday.
Previously the authorities put the figure at 207.
Blood stains are seen on the wall and on a Jesus Christ statue at the St. Sebastian's Church after blast in Negombo. Photo / AP
Australia's prime minister says two Australian citizens died and another two were injured in the Sri Lankan bomb blasts.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the two Australians killed were from the same family and lived in Sri Lanka. One was a dual citizen.Morrison says two other dual citizens were injured but are in stable conditions. He says one is being treated for shrapnel wounds and the other has a broken leg.
Australia has advised its citizens to reconsider their need to travel to Sri Lanka, the second highest security alert.
The coordinated Easter Sunday bombings that ripped through Sri Lankan churches and luxury hotels, killing more than 200 people, were carried out by seven suicide bombers from a domestic militant group named National Thowfeek Jamaath, a government official said Monday.
All of the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens, but authorities suspect foreign links, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said at a news conference.
Earlier, Ariyananda Welianga, a government forensic crime investigator, said an analysis of the attackers' body parts made clear that they were suicide bombers.
He said most of the attacks were carried out by a single bomber, with two at Colombo's Shangri-La Hotel.
The bombings, Sri Lanka's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war ended a decade ago on the island nation, killed at least 290 people with more than 500 wounded, Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said Monday.
The NTJ were the subject of an intelligence warning ten days before the attacks. The warning said they were planning attacks on churches and the Indian high commission.
Welianga says two people were involved in the attack at the Shangri-La hotel. One bomber each attacked the Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels and St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, St. Sebastian's church in the city of Negombo and Zion Church in the city of Batticaloa.
Two bombings hours later at a guesthouse and near an overpass on the outskirts of Colombo are still under investigation. Suspects detonated explosives at a safe house near the overpass blast, killing three officers.
This image made from video provided by Hiru TV shows damage inside a church after a blast in Colombo. Photo / AP
Relatives of a blast victim grieve outside a morgue in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo / AP
No group has so far taken responsibility for the attack, and the Sri Lankan Government has not speculated, but politicians have said they were the work of suicide bombers. Around 13 people have been arrested.
The bombings have shattered a decade of relative peace in Sri Lanka since the end of a bloody civil war in the late 2010s.
The identities of some of the first victims are emerging including five Britons, three of who may have died in the queue for a breakfast buffet in a major hotel. One victim shared a tragic last selfie to social media moments before a bomb exploded.
