8 arrested in connection with Sri Lanka blasts

Sri Lankan security personnel stand next to an ambulance outside St. Anthony’s Shrine in Kochchikade in Colombo on April 21, 2019 following a blast at the church. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Eight people have been arrested in connection with a string of deadly blasts that killed more than 200 people in Sri Lanka on Sunday, the country’s prime minister said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said “so far the names that have come up are local,” but he said investigators would look into whether the attackers had any “overseas links.”

He also acknowledged that the “information was there” about possible attacks.

“While this goes on we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken,” he said.

But he said the government’s first priority would be to “apprehend the terrorists.”

”First and foremost we have to ensure that terrorism does not lift its head in Sri Lanka,” he said.

A total of eight blasts tore through high-end hotels and churches across Sri Lanka on Sunday, in the worst violence since the country’s civil war ended a decade ago.

At least two of the blasts involved suicide bombers, sources told AFP.

/atm