Sri Lankan president 'confident' armed forces could 'destroy' group behind bombings

Sri Lanka's president met leaders from all religious group on Thursday as he assured the situation in the country is under control as police are looking for 140 people believed to have links with the Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday suicide bombings of churches and hotels.

Nearly 10,000 soldiers were being deployed across the Indian Ocean island state to carry out searches and provide security for religious centres, the military said on Friday.

In the meeting, Maithripala Sirisena told religious leaders that the government is in touch with foreign intelligence on the investigations. Police have detained at least 76 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt, in their investigations so far.

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Islamic State has provided no evidence to back its claim that it was behind the attacks. If true, it would be one of the worst attacks carried out by the group outside Iraq and Syria.