Sri Lanka multiple blasts: Seven arrested, death toll passes 200

Seven people were arrested and three police officers were killed during a raid on a house in Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Sunday. Meanwhile, the death toll from the multiple bombings at Sri Lankan churches and hotels rose past 200, police and local media said. As many as 450 people have been wounded.

"Altogether we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information as of now, we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals," Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told reporters in Colombo.

Further details of the raid on the house in the Sri Lankan capital were not immediately available, news agency Reuters reported.

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Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Sunday afternoon was rocked by another blast. The eighth explosion, in a series of blasts that had rattled the country on Sunday, occurred in the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital city. Three people were reported dead in the latest blast. Police said there were no further details on what was targeted, adding that the blast was a suicide bombing, news agency AFP reported.

The blasts

Easter Day bomb blasts were reported at three Sri Lankan churches and three luxury hotels earlier today.

The three hotels that were hit were the Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo and the Cinnamon Grand Colombo in the capital city, news agency Reuters reported.

St Anthony's Shrine, a Catholic Church in Kochcikade, Colombo, was one of the churches where a blast was reported on Sunday along with an explosion at St Sebastian's gothic-style Catholic church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo and an explosion that hit an evangelical church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

Later in the day, the Sri Lankan police reported the seventh explosion, the fourth at a hotel near the national zoo, which is in an area near the capital Colombo, Reuters reported.

The latest and the eighth in the series of Easter Day explosions occurred in the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital city Colombo.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called for an emergency parliamentary session.

Nation-wide curfew, social media blocked

The Sri Lankan government imposed a nationwide curfew on Sunday that the police said would go into effect immediately and would last "until further notice".

Sri Lanka's defence ministry initially said the curfew would be imposed overnight, but the police subsequently said it would go into effect straight away.

Sri Lanka's government said Sunday it would impose a "temporary" social media ban.

"The government has decided to block all social media platforms in order to prevent incorrect and wrong information being spread. This is only a temporary measure" Udaya R Seneviratne, secretary to the president said in a statement.

No place for such barbarism

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, in a telephonic conversation with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, expressed his condolences and described the multiple bombings as "cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out that these attacks were "another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in our region and the entire world".

"Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," PM Modi tweeted out.