Sri Lankan security forces approach the site after a vehicle parked near St. Anthony’s shrine exploded in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Monday, April 22, 2019. Easter Sunday bombings that ripped through churches and luxury hotels killed more than 300 people.The Associated Press
As a state of emergency took effect Tuesday giving the Sri Lankan military wartime powers, police arrested 40 suspects, including the driver of a van allegedly used by the suicide bombers and the owner of a house where some of them lived.
Sri Lanka’s president gave the military a wider berth to detain and arrest suspects – powers that were used during the 26-year civil war but withdrawn when it ended in 2009.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said the death toll from Sunday’s attacks rose to 310.
President Maithripala Sirisena has declared a day of mourning for Tuesday, a day after officials disclosed that warnings had been received weeks ago of the possibility of an attack by the radical Muslim group blamed for the bloodshed.